Working

There was a time, not so long ago, when my work required my utmost and undivided attention. As a writer, processing story and setting it in a readable and entertaining format, is the best part of the process—the research and multiple drafts that prelude a finished piece of work are necessary, but not quite as much fun. . . regardless, all parts of the process have required quite a bit of focused attention from me in the past. No background music or excess noise, clean and orderly working conditions, etc. (I'm a bit compulsive in this area . . . or I used to be). In fact, many, if not most writers will speak on some level to the necessity of a focused place, space, and time to work . . . it's just part of the nature of the whole process.

Today I opened up a document that I have not looked at, much less worked on, in over a year. In the course of that time, my life has shifted slightly, as has my ability to maintain the quiet and the order of my working conditions . . .

So, to my surprise and delight, today I find myself actually working a bit—something I've not given myself the permission to do in a very long time. But this time, my working conditions are considerably different. Gone is the quite and the order.

In the background, Go Diego Go! is exuberantly entertaining my son, who is fighting the stomach flu (so throw a bit of vomit in there for good measure); a load of laundry is running downstairs; my "work space" (otherwise known as my dining room table) is littered with bills-just-paid, tax paperwork and files, a half-filled bottle of breast milk, a quickly-cooling cup of coffee, a bottle of children's Tylenol, and a box of Kleenex. In the crook of my left arm my three-week old daughter is hiccuping violently, and I think she just soiled her pants . . . yet, in spite of all the distractions, I am actually enjoying a bit of accomplishment in the writing department! Something I never could have imagined just a few long months ago.

So, to all of the multi-taskers out there, I raise my cup of now-cold coffee in a toast. We are stronger than we think.

Now, back to work.