Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "stress"
Too Busy But...
I suppose everyone busy doing something has the same complaint. There never seem to be enough hours in a day. Actually there are. We just try to over schedule. Or waste some of the time we do have.
My website is normally lots of fun to do. I write a couple of fast commentaries and set up (and do) a science project each week.
This week I am putting the first part of "The Pumpkin Project" up for subscription so time is tight. So why did I set up a long science project? And whatever possessed me to do a poem for one of the commentaries?
I must be mad!
The science project really took only a couple of hours to set up when I finally got up the nerve to start it. Part of that was time to clean up the stove. The project included making rock candy and the sugar syrup boiled over when I looked away for five seconds.
After that it was a matter of waiting, watching and hoping the rock candy would form. I should know by now, having tried this a couple of other times, that I am doomed. The rock candy forms anywhere but on the dangled string.
I'm expecting the first hummingbirds any day. They can eat the remains of rock candy after I dissolve it off the bottom of the jar.
And the poem? The pictures are ready. The poem is two or three stanzas from done. It will need rewriting eventually as the meter isn't quite right yet.
"The Pumpkin Project?" It's ready to debut, I think. The PDF is done after arguing with the computer about margins. The Introduction and Project 1 with pictures are ready.
There really was enough time. Things did get almost done. I even finished up the two new Investigations in Part 2 of "The Pumpkin Project" due out in a couple of weeks.
Maybe the problem isn't the amount of time. Maybe the problem is stressing out about the time which is itself a waste of time. Maybe someday I will learn this and quit stressing. Maybe.
My website is normally lots of fun to do. I write a couple of fast commentaries and set up (and do) a science project each week.
This week I am putting the first part of "The Pumpkin Project" up for subscription so time is tight. So why did I set up a long science project? And whatever possessed me to do a poem for one of the commentaries?
I must be mad!
The science project really took only a couple of hours to set up when I finally got up the nerve to start it. Part of that was time to clean up the stove. The project included making rock candy and the sugar syrup boiled over when I looked away for five seconds.
After that it was a matter of waiting, watching and hoping the rock candy would form. I should know by now, having tried this a couple of other times, that I am doomed. The rock candy forms anywhere but on the dangled string.
I'm expecting the first hummingbirds any day. They can eat the remains of rock candy after I dissolve it off the bottom of the jar.
And the poem? The pictures are ready. The poem is two or three stanzas from done. It will need rewriting eventually as the meter isn't quite right yet.
"The Pumpkin Project?" It's ready to debut, I think. The PDF is done after arguing with the computer about margins. The Introduction and Project 1 with pictures are ready.
There really was enough time. Things did get almost done. I even finished up the two new Investigations in Part 2 of "The Pumpkin Project" due out in a couple of weeks.
Maybe the problem isn't the amount of time. Maybe the problem is stressing out about the time which is itself a waste of time. Maybe someday I will learn this and quit stressing. Maybe.
Hamster Wheels
A report came up on the radio news the other day about teenage suicides. These weren't the outcasts or shunned. These were the popular, smart kids with good grades.
Why?
Of course there was analysis and speculations. Of course there was hand wringing. Of course there were plans for intervention.
What struck me was that these kids were so very busy. They were overwhelmed with their lives.
Schools value perfect attendance. My mother didn't. As a normal rule we were expected to be up and off to school on time. Yet every once in a while we got to stay home for a trip to the beach or the park or anywhere but school.
Why?
My mother told me years later she held one of these days when one or more of us got too frazzled. We needed some time off. Just a day to relax, get out from under the stress.
These teenagers seemed to never take a day off. They worked 24/7, 365 days a year.
Long ago the lumber camps found working a six day week increased production even though one day had no one working but the cooks. Everyone needs a break now and then. Including me. Except in November.
But maybe I should remember my mother's wisdom and get out of my hamster wheel life for a time. Maybe we all should. And maybe we should teach our kids to do the same.
Suicide is a waste of a precious life. It's even more of a waste if the cause is only looking for a way out of the hamster wheel.
Why?
Of course there was analysis and speculations. Of course there was hand wringing. Of course there were plans for intervention.
What struck me was that these kids were so very busy. They were overwhelmed with their lives.
Schools value perfect attendance. My mother didn't. As a normal rule we were expected to be up and off to school on time. Yet every once in a while we got to stay home for a trip to the beach or the park or anywhere but school.
Why?
My mother told me years later she held one of these days when one or more of us got too frazzled. We needed some time off. Just a day to relax, get out from under the stress.
These teenagers seemed to never take a day off. They worked 24/7, 365 days a year.
Long ago the lumber camps found working a six day week increased production even though one day had no one working but the cooks. Everyone needs a break now and then. Including me. Except in November.
But maybe I should remember my mother's wisdom and get out of my hamster wheel life for a time. Maybe we all should. And maybe we should teach our kids to do the same.
Suicide is a waste of a precious life. It's even more of a waste if the cause is only looking for a way out of the hamster wheel.
