>> Aaaaaaand action!
It’s 11pm and I’m standing in the middle of the kitchen, juggling three Cuties clementines.
As I juggle, I try to keep the oranges at the same height and the same distance apart as they braid in the air. I want them to look balanced, symmetrical. Then I drop one. And then all three.
But the faster I throw the oranges and the less attention I pay to keeping them consistent, the better I juggle.
>> Cut to director’s commentary
I’m not sure what inspired me to juggle at 11pm for absolutely no reason. And don’t pester me about the fact that I can juggle. I’m well aware it’s completely dorky and peculiar. But it’s fun—and cathartic in a weird way.
It annoyed me that when I conscientiously tried to carefully juggle the oranges, I couldn’t keep them in the air. But when I quit thinking so hard about it, I didn’t drop them—not once.
In fact, I wasn’t even looking directly at the oranges. I was staring past them, using my peripheral vision to make sure I caught each one. It was somehow…natural.
>>Cut to profoundly philosophical macrocosm of life. Maybe.
I hesitate at kneeling to the cliche phrase “juggling priorities,” but juggling is exactly what I’m doing.
I’m always (and I very much mean perpetually) learning how to juggle priorities. I take on way too many projects, tasks and responsibilities. And then, once I’m overloaded, I:
- freak out,
- don’t sleep, get everything done butjustbarely,
- don’t sleep, get nothing done and implode in a stressball, or
- drink copious amounts of coffee and prance around the kitchen juggling small citrus fruits.
None of these options is healthy.
Forcing the juggling made it so unnatural. But trusting myself allowed me to be much more natural.
Though juggling oranges in my pajamas late at night doesn’t count as “artful” by any sort of fashionable or being-cool standard, I think there’s a way to be artful in juggling the excess of responsibilities many of us take on.
How? Well, for me, I’ve realized I can’t force-fit everything. If I create too many to-do lists, or assume I have it all figured out without being receptive to new ideas, or plan each day down to 15-minute increments, or super-miniscule-look!it’sdust!-micro-manage each of my tasks, I will drown in my own strategizing. (After which I will promptly burn for having uttered the word “strategizing.”)
If I give space to my ideas, endeavors and responsibilities–if I let spontaneity play a part–my responsibilities are no longer burdens. They become challenges.
Perhaps a little bit of thoughtful strategy and a little bit of unrehearsed juggling are the keys to accomplishing goals.
{But the next time you freak out about the gajillion things you have going on, try juggling some fruit, in your kitchen, in your pajamas. I recommend citrus fruits; if you’re a lousy juggler, at least you can make juice when you’re done.}
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