Hazy Days of Summer

Barbara: I’m sure you’ve all read the now ubiquitous articles on how social networking is bogging our brains down. That we need to balance all the hyper-browsing we’re doing every day with extended periods of quiet introspection. The problem is, the reason this advice is so suddenly prevalent is because every social network is touting its wisdom. And we’re getting the message over and over because we are social networking so voraciously! 

How do we keep exploring and reading and discovering the world network if there are barely enough hours in the day for our own writing and work and living??? You all seem to do it with such grace and aplomb. Take Gae over at Trying to Stay Afloat in a Sea of Words. How the hell does she write her blogs, edit and write her novels (one soon to be published), Facebook network, raise two boys, swim the ocean, love her friends as she does, read and comment on countless other blogs, oh, and work as a lawyer??? And she’s just one example of so many of you. And to make matters more challenging for me—this year has given us one of the loveliest spring/summers we’ve had in these parts for a long time. It is everything I can do not to just turn the world off and lie in my lounger and stare at the trees for endless hours. I could even call it “quiet introspection” and claim the experts told me it was imperative for my brain. 

Deb and I are new to this whole blogosphere thing, so it’s still a learning process for us. I just want to tell you how often we’ve wondered in private at the amazing world you’ve shown us, how great it is to “meet” all of you from around the world, to commune with you, and to read your own brilliant blogs. No matter how different all of our daily lives might be, it seems so many of us are somehow fundamentally connected. Like those bees in their hive, gently communing as they create their marvelous honey. It’s a wonder and a comfort. 

So how do I have my cake and eat it too? The world beckons. It entices, it cajoles, it teases. I want to eat it up and lie exhausted and sated with bits of its jus on my lips. But it’s also an endless buffet that I feel myself hesitating in front of, not knowing how to take even one bite of its feast without regretting all the bites I might miss. And then there’s the quiet that used to be so easy to take advantage of—now days, weeks, months can go by without a quiet moment to be found. How do you balance it all?! 

Deb: Funny that I should be responding to this blog at the 11th hour. Barb––God bless her––had to email and remind me that my response was due. And indeed it was. But I have been summering this last 36 hours with friends at their farm, forgetting my responsibility to the blog. It is one of the only summer breaks we will have this summer and it is still less than two days. And yet I am so up to my neck, I did not even notice I was behind. I would LOVE to have even one day of nothing and no responsibility. I am craving it like a dog with a bone that she wants to bury and then sleep on for at least 36 HOURS! So I will add to Barb’s question a resounding, "Wha????????????". How do you others do it?