Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts

Friday, 21 May 2010

Atlas and the Axis - Oh what a feeling!

Do you feel the world is spinning a little bit faster these days? Do you feel like you're running on a treadmill? Ha, and I don't mean the type they have at the dreaded gym. I mean the feeling where you are living in such a hyper state that you feel like you'll never get things done - what to prioritise? What to leave off the list?

A cursory read of the many blogs I follow bears this out - we're all feeling the pressure, whether it's the demands of family, the demands of work (outside of writing, which depending on your definition may or may not be work), the demands of your editor (lucky you!), or even the demands of reading blogfest entries. Demands, demands, demands. Women have always been regarded as the 'carers,' like it or not, and many demands on our time are from those needing our nurturing. Finding the time to do anything well is the trick. I'm sure you feel like me at times - with all those demands do we really do anything as well as we should?

This feeling sometimes makes me nostalgic for the past. Was this really a simpler time? Did our mothers and grandmothers have it easier than we do? In some ways yes, but in others, no. Depending on your mother's age, maybe she would not have had all the mod-cons we enjoy. Yet even with automatic washers and dryers and other fabulous gadgets, we seem to have less time in our day to just relax and have 'me' time.

Sure, neither my mother nor my grandmother was trying to write novels or short stories, but they had way more children than I do, they worked harder physically, but somehow they had time to sit down and listen to radio serials, read books and do the knitting/crocheting, home baking. How delightful and alien at the same time. How did things change so quicky?

Maybe Atlas is having a joke with us and is spinning the Earth faster and faster. It certainly seems that way. Do you ever feel like screaming: 'Stop the world, I wanna get off!'

Then, where would we be? Huh?