I am currently listening to Malcolm Gladwell read “The Tipping Point” on my computer. I have trouble paying attention for longer than a few moments. It isn’t that I am not interested in the book. I find it fascinating. He just used “surfeit” in a sentence. I think Malcolm Gladwell’s work is fascinating. The problem is that I am trying to do three other things at the same time. This isn’t very successful.
It’s how I have been going through life lately. Trying to do many things at once. There is so much I want to do. I want to be a good mother. I want to be a good worker. I want to serve the people in my community, my church, my kids’ school. I want to be a writer. I am like a kid at MoJo who wants every topping. With a jumble of gummy bears, chocolate chips, cookie bits and caramel, the resulting blend is often a disappointment, not living up to the expectations of the child spooning the toppings into the yogurt cup.
I have to scale back. I have to prune and try to do one thing well rather than trying to do a thousand things, none of which are ever done well. With a heavy heart, I wrote an email to the editor of Raising Arizona Kids, Karen Barr. I told her that I could not keep writing and I had to focus my attention on raising my kids. She was so kind and gracious. She understood and assured me the door is open should I choose to come back. Her email made me smile. It made me feel valued and loved. This is why is is so hard to scale back and focus on a few things in my life rather than everything. I will miss Raising Arizona Kids, or, RAK as I call it when I am trying to go faster. I will miss the comments of readers and the feeling of being part of this community to is concerned with the same thing: raising our children to the best of our ability. But now I must go try to do that and in doing so, enjoy the surfeit of life rather than be overwhelmed by it.
Catherine: I did the same thing myself many years ago. We all understand and wish you all good things whenever and however our paths cross again. I appreciate your contributions to the RAK family and the community we all work so hard to serve. You will make meaningful contributions in other ways along your parenting journey–and will find your parenting adventures enriching even when challenging. I am proud of you for taking care of you and the people you love. Thanks for sharing a piece of youself with other families. Hugs! –Lynn
Thank you so much, Lynn, for your kind words and your encouragement. I appreciate your understanding and your compassion. It’s tough to know what the right thing to do is sometimes but for right now, it feels like I have to try to scale back. I wish you the very best as well and hope to get to meet you in “real life” someday!