As you will note with a glance at the dates, I have not written a blog post for my website in over a year. But, as we all know, life can throw curveballs. In my case, a major change occurred when I unexpectedly became the caregiver for a family member. Unless you have been in this position yourself, you probably cannot relate to the difficulties involved, difficulties that include the various adjustments you have to make to your own life while you try to make someone else’s life easier.
It has taken me many months to figure out how to juggle my time successfully between caregiving, my writing/editing work and a bit of relaxation. Caregiving takes up the bulk of my days—and sometimes my nights—and relaxation usually comes in the form of reading or watching a little TV in the evening. Writing, frankly, is a godsend. Especially creative writing. And lately, it has dawned on me that over the past few months, I have slowly fallen into a routine.
Relying on routine
The experts say that children thrive on routine. I think there is a certain amount of truth to that no matter what age you are. A routine has structure, which can be comforting. You see, as a caregiver, you have to be prepared to handle a wide range of situations that can pop up at any time. They might be outside your field of expertise. They might leave you emotionally or physically drained. But whatever happens, you have to do your best on behalf of the person who needs your help. Having done so, you can fall back on the welcoming structure of your routine and pick up where you were required to leave off.
Tweaking the routine I have put together is fun, especially when it concerns my work. To that end, I have slotted time for various projects. Pretty sure that will help me post James River Writing blogs in a timelier manner.