It is 3:27pm on the Monday after my return from a 17-day trip to the east coast. More on that tomorrow.

At 8:15am this morning I said, “I’m going to start writing by 10:00am.” Things obviously did not go as planned. Today I’m blaming that on the fact that I’m involved in five too many projects, in addition to the project of living a healthy life in which you don’t kill your puppy or lose your husband. In a catch-phrase, I’m lacking a healthy work/life balance.

And so instead of writing I plugged “how to achieve a better work/life balance” into my Google at 3:15pm (because never in the history of the art of writing has anyone sat down and just started writing). An e-mail from my friend Cindy Chupack popped up at the top of the search returns, which made zero sense until I realized that I had searched inside my e-mail, not my Google. This turned out to be a happy brain fart.

Several weeks ago – when my life was equally unbalanced – Cindy sent me an e-mail about this interview she did with writer Susie Schnall in association with Susie’s novel, The Balance Project.

Confession Cindy (and Susie): I read it too quickly the first time to remember much. But a little serendipity brought me back to this Q&A in which Cindy shares triumphs and struggles from her own attempts at walking the tightrope that is life as a human adult circa 2015. It read it very carefully this time, and it made me feel much better, especially this Q and A:

 

What part of “balance” can you just not seem to figure out?
I can’t seem to say no to anything! Why am I writing this now? My daughter is home sick (husband taking care of her), I have an essay I need to write for an anthology, I’m trying to get a movie going that I would direct, I am supposed to be writing a pilot that might film in Paris, I need to watch more episodes of The Goldbergs because I’m meeting about staffing there, there is another show I might staff on that I need to interview for—I have 80 emails to get through (this was one of them), I am feeling I need to get on Facebook and wish my friend a happy birthday because everybody else, even people who are lesser friends, already have, what the hell am I doing writing about balance?!

I recommend you read the entire piece (click on the image for the full piece or just click here). When you’re done, take your own Balance Project interview, and after that, buy Susie’s books AND Cindy’s books. All of them.

Now please excuse me while I go hug my dog one more time and then get some freaking work done.