Acceptance

“What if not just women, but both men and women, worked smart, more flexible schedules? What if the workplace itself was more fluid than the rigid and narrow ladder to success of the ideal worker? And what if both men and women became responsible for raising children and managing the home, sharing work, love, and play? Could everyone then live whole lives?” 
― Brigid Schulte, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

Stuff I Would Like to Do/Be Doing These Days
Go thru Think Python and work on Python coding
Audit the Maps and The Geospatial Revolution course on Coursera
Attend more PyLadies NYC Meetups
Get my eyes checked
See a movie in a movie theater
Blog more often
Buy some new pants

Stuff I Must/Most Need to Do These Days
Go to work
Spend time with my family
Keep house (cook, light cleaning, shopping)
Exercise
Watch at least an hour of TV a night
Occasional social engagements
Eat
Sleep

All of this (and more!) has been rattling around in my head for weeks as I have been trying to find a moment to write this post. I recently read (or OK, read most of) Brigid Schulte’s book Overwhelmed: Work, Play, and Love When Nobody Has The Time. The book had the overall result of making me feel less overwhelmed. Hey! Look at me! I am reading a book! I am not totally bowled over by life! I do not think it is particularly cool to be busy all the time!  That said, I must admit that I read the book while riding the train on the way to work or laying around on the sofa, but most of the things on that top list are not things that can be done on my morning commute or while I waiting for pasta to boil. Most of those things require a longer and more focused period of time, brainpower, and energy — none of which I have right now.  So, I am just trying to take the time to accept that I don’t have the time to do all the things I *want* to do / feel I should be doing right now this very instant. I am also sitting with the fact that I might never have the time to learn how to code and frankly I have no great need to know how to code nor do I have any problems that I believe I could code my way out of. In fact, I almost think coding could unearth problems that would just open the door to a bunch of new stressors.

So that’s that.

None of this is to say I feel calm and guilt-free about it, but the direction I am going in is not towards finding the time to do the things on the top list but instead in accepting the fact that the life I live and love is comprised of all the things on the bottom list.

Although I think I *can* reasonably squeeze in the pants purchase if I play my cards right.