Tuesday evening we had another snowstorm.  First it snowed, then it stopped.  Then it came down freezing rain, and by Wednesday it was back to snow again.  At the end of it we had a foot of snow.  Everything was covered in a deep blanket of fluffy white stuff.  We stayed home and caught up on email, had a late breakfast, and considered how to catch up on our cancelled meetings and appointments.

Then I started thinking.   What do we do with our time?   Where does it get us?  What is important and what is not?

I have many personal passions.  One of them is knitting, others are walking my dog Barkley and working out.  I love to read, to watch movies, go out with my friends, and work in my garden.   Larry and I enjoy traveling and hanging out on the deck.  The problem is that I haven’t done much of any of these things lately.  For two days the world stood still.   Everything was cancelled.  In theory I could have slept in, put on a movie, pulled out my knitting, and put up a pot of coffee.

What actually fills up my typical day  looks far different.

On January 2nd I was sworn in as supervisor.  At face value it didn’t seem like a hugely demanding job.  It entails two meetings a month, and as an option, attending other meetings such as Park Board and Planning Commission.  My work volunteering with a local organization that supports nonprofit development became more demanding.

And then there is political action.  With all the craziness in Washington I couldn’t sit at home.  So I remain engaged in local political activity and am working on a 2018 campaign.  Did I mention that I live in Pennsylvania.  We are the state where Republicans threatened to impeach Democratic supreme court justices over gerrymandering.  We are the state of Connor Lamb and Pat Meehan.   How can I sit home in my jammies while the world is falling apart?

In the first six months of my retirement from the working world I got back to the basics of life: sleeping, eating, and socializing.  That was great.  I spent hours on my family genealogy project, put in a vegetable garden, joined a local book group and gym, and found a group of knitters who welcomed me.  Larry and I traveled frequently and met many people in our community who we now call friend.  That was great.

I’m not saying that I’m unhappy, but I need to get some more balance.  Today I was reminded to reach out to someone I was supposed to email three weeks ago.  Earlier I sent out an email with a major typo in it.  Embarrassing!  I continue to be reminded that multi-tasking, the resort of busy people, doesn’t work.

Moving at a mile a minute isn’t healthy.  So I am locked in a inner struggle to find a way to enjoy my active life without being quite so busy.

Today the snow is melting.  As winter takes a final bow I look forward to the curtain rising on a new spring.