Staying Happy

I started writing a different post, about what I would change if I didn’t “owe” anyone, if I were free to be self-centered and do whatever I want to do.

Then I realized, I kinda am.

That is, unlike the people I genuinely pity, I really am living the life I want to. And it’s not easy.

So I didn’t pick an easy life.
Moving on.

This brilliant (unpublished) post enumerated the three directions I feel pulled in, and I said–

What? My world’s falling apart over three things?

Now, granted, my world was not falling apart (just my focus), and there are a LOT more than three things on my mind right now (each category has numerous subsections), but to see clear sections has settled me down, and I’m back to believing I have a reasonable number of things to manage.

  • Food
    • General health management right now seems tied to food. Generally food that requires more than a little planning and preparation.
  • Homeschooling
    • I’ve picked three focus areas for each girl: two strictly academic and the third an art-focus, because I want to teach (and learn!) discipline even connected to something I know they enjoy and choose in their free time.
      • And it will provide guidance to their recreation too: I am not an admirer of the self-taught=more pure line of reasoning.
        • Natasha will be primarily drawing (as the plan stands) and
        • Melody will focus more on 3-D arts
  • Writing and Reading
    • This was the one that started the if only I didn’t owe line of thought. I felt buried enough by the myriad of details in the other two that I thought this would be the easiest to throw out. But I thought of my critique group and my new writer-friend God gave me through NaNoWriMo, and the teenage girls who are still waiting for the next version of the story (even though an equal or greater number of readers have expressed no similar need to get the whole story…) But most of all it is me. I want to have finished, and I can’t blame that on anyone.
    • On the reading side I’ve picked up a dozen new (Christian!) novels free for my Kindle, and I look forward to reading how other authors have handled faith-based writing.  I’ve been praying about this question for years now.

So here I am, starting another year: same life, same goals (perhaps more purposeful), and ever-increasing gratitude that I have the freedom to choose my burdens.

4 thoughts on “Staying Happy

  1. Last night I fell asleep thinking of the things I had to do the next day (today), and I had the same thought, though you said it much better…I felt an “ever-increasing gratitude that I have the freedom to choose my burdens.”

  2. I really like that phrase: “freedom to choose my burdens.” Writing is a great example, like you mentioned. Whenever my own blog starts to feel like a burden, I remind myself that I freely chose to do it and am just as free to stop at any time. It’s amazing how quickly all my negative feelings dissolve when I simply focus on my personal freedom: immediately blogging becomes fun again!

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