When Life Gets in the Way...

As much as we’d all like to follow our passion - writing - there are times when circumstances just thwart every attempt to scrimp a half hour or throw our routines out of whack.
I work full time as a teacher, so for me writing time is scrimped from the early morning hours - I get up at 4.30am and (after breakfast) I write until 7.30am then drive to work. It’s quiet at this time - no phone calls, no visitors, very few interruptions - and I’m fresh so it’s a routine I’ve adopted for almost two years now. After the teaching day I spend the evening hours editing what I’ve written for the day (if I’m not doing volunteer work or attending some meeting). I think about what I’m going to write tomorrow. More often than not, it’s bed time when I do this and it’s the last thing I remember doing before I fall asleep.
But what happens if a crisis in the family occurs or the pressures of a volunteer activity outside the home interrupts or the demands of work require your undivided attention and it sucks every bit of time out of the day/morning/night you planned to write?
What do you do?
Panic - you could, but what does it achieve except make you feel worse?
Worry - hmm, yeah, but again, all that does is make you feel guilty about not being able to write and ends in the same result, feeling bad.
Fume - OK, who hasn’t felt angry about your precious time being interrupted? Vent but move on to something more practical.
Bend like a reed in the river? Be flexible, enduring, with the strength to let life flow over and around you but once the flood has passed, straighten and keep going. Nice image. A lot healthier than the other reactions.
Life’s circumstances will always pry you away from your passion. Whenever you have a day, a week, a month where the rising waters of life submerge or dilute your passion for writing...remember...
Flex, lean, bow.
Be the reed.
Next week will be better.