Life is one big balancing act. Balancing multiple projects at work. Balancing various hobbies. Balancing self-care, family time, and career aspirations. If one element grows too heavy, the others become undeveloped—and, more importantly, you start to feel stressed. Sometimes you need to take a good look at the items on your scale and rearrange them, redistribute their weight, maybe even push a few off entirely.
This happened to me last summer. Between my day job, my writing projects, my new dog, and my failing marriage, I was overwhelmed with stress. I’m not a quitter, so it took some courage to remove some of these things from my plate. I gave up my role as blog editor for RMFW, a job that once brought me joy but now brought only stress. I got a divorce, which was so painful that for a while I didn’t have the energy to write. Instead, I baked. I cultivated new friendships. I read submissions for the upcoming RMFW anthology, Wild. I found a new, if temporary, balance. After a few months of emotional recovery, I got a new job, went on a first date, revised my last novel and started my next one. My life is balanced once more.
I never meant to abandon my website for a year, but sometimes that’s what you have to do to find balance. Now I’m happy to be back, and feeling better than ever.