How do you balance??

This is might be a rambling blog I should warn you.  I know I'm not the only one that is overwhelmed with the holiday season but this year seems particularly crazy.  The running is taking a hit hardcore.  There is no running to be had in the mix of duties, obligations and responsibilities of my life. UGH!!

How do you balance?

In all the qualities that we as women can have - beauty, intelligence, poise, compassion - it is the ability to balance their lives that I respect, and can honestly admit, COVET the most!!! I want to do it all but just can't find the time.  It is a heartwrenching day to try to get it all done - walk the dogs, get the dogs to the groomers, finish the laundry for the young one, figure out what to make for dinner AND then make it, get the puppy to training classes, finish my GOTR blog, get the GOTR newsletter done, spend at least some time with honey that doesn't involve talking about what we need to get accomplished around the house, talk to my sister because I didn't talk to her all weekend and she is my ROCK so I HAVE to make it fit in there somewhere, send a thank you for my little sisters sweet Christmas present, answer all my emails, return two phone calls, is it lunch yet??

As I've gotten older I've learned to prioritze better than I could when I was in my twenties.  I know that the laundry WILL get done and I can walk away from the pile on the floor to watch a movie with my family.  But somewhere along the way that learned wisdom brought with it the need for MORE sleep.  In my twenties I could go on 4 hours a sleep a night, now if I do that I need 4 cups of coffee and I'm still in bed by 9pm!

My life is so great! I'm so thankful to have a wonderful guy, his terrifically unique, smart & fun children, extended family who stay connected, friends who support and believe in me, my bills paid, food on my table every evening and opportunities that are endless.  So when I start to feel this way and want to whine about it I KNOW I'm blessed way beyond others and tell myself to grab my bootstraps and quit being ungrateful!

But the fact is it's still hard.  And I know its important to ackowledge that struggle because I'm not the only one having a hard time balancing, young girls are struggling too. 

The Girl Box, what society says our young girls should be, tells us we SHOULD be able to balance our lives. That girls should balance being a pretty social butterfly, being a straight A student, being well listening attentive daughters, being super star athletes, being everything we want them to be and doing it quickly, quietly with a smile on their faces.  As a woman my "Girl Box" says I should be a multi-tasking mother, a loyal wife, a force to be reckoned with in my career, size 4, AND still find time for myself. 

I don't know what the answer is to finding a balance in our lives.  I don't know how I will ever find the time to get it all done.  That's not why I wrote this blog - I wrote it to say, "Girls you are not the only ones struggling to do it all in your lives.  Please don't turn to drugs, or alcohol to ease the pain, to quick sex to get boys to like you, to cutting or throwing up. Please know you are not alone in trying to find a way to make your lives work, to be true to yourself and make the people around you happy too." 

I'm going keep making my to do lists.  I'm going to keep trying to get it done.  I'm going to keep prioritizing.  I'm going to find the time to run.  It may not be today or even tomorrow but I will run again.  And today when the balancing act wears me out I will get 5 things done on the list and be proud of myself! We are making a worthy effort and that counts!  Because we have ackowledged our own limits and can stand strong and say, "this is who I am and this is what I will get done today " we have given the strain and stress of  the "Girl Box" no power over us.  We will be the best balancers our lives have ever seen and we will do it by our own measures of success.