Posted in A Moment in My Life

“In Simpler Times”

A Moment in My Life – Thursday, October 28, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

I long for simpler times. I missed yesteryear of being disciplined with a schedule that worked for me. I miss writing my column five days a week. The silver lining from being sheltered-in-place was that it afforded me the time to get disciplined and set good habits to write every weekday, whether I felt like it or not. My goal was to complete my column by noon each day. I didn’t know whether I could pull it off or not. I just did it, and it came together for over 180 columns. The funny thing was that being sheltered-in-place, I had nowhere to go and nothing to do, yet I managed to write about engaging topics each day. Where did those days go?

I’m grateful for shelter-in-place for the sole reason that I launched my writing career without external distractions. It’s hard enough fighting the internal nuisances without any outside provocation. Sometimes, you can’t help it. Life happens, and when it does, you have to go with the flow. Despite the pandemic, my family came to town for our cousin Heman’s funeral in the early fall. There are always pros and cons to every event. It was lovely being with people again, but it was hard to rebound from the diversion. Before I made it back to my routine, I participated in writing a novel for the November writing month, and then it was time to prepare for the holidays, and you know how that goes. It wasn’t until after the holidays did I get back on course.

Over Christmas, I fell madly in love with Laine Hardy and soaked up everything I could find on him, and he made me happy. Laine saw me through each day with his songs cheering me up—especially when he sang “Louisiana Lady.” As the song goes, “when we’re together, everything’s all right,” and when I listened to his music, everything was all right in my world. We were both starting our careers—he with his music and me with my writing. In the beginning, we mirrored each other, and I had so many plans that I couldn’t wait to flush them out. I was beyond excited for him and me. I wanted us to succeed. I felt he and I were both shooting for our stars this year. Well, one of us is making it happen while the other sadly got sidetracked.

My first quarter was floating along nicely, and my Seattle BFF and I planned a trip together next Spring to celebrate each of our successful endeavors. Then life happened, and I took on more than I could chew, spiraling my plans south. I began writing short fiction weekly while maintaining my columns, but it became harder and harder to juggle the two. When that was already a challenge, I got recruited as a moderator for The Team Hardy Fan Group, which I declined. Still, after much persuading, I caved and accepted as I honestly wanted to help Laine soar. If that wasn’t enough, then came my stalker, who ate up two months of my life, simply by interjecting himself into every aspect of my world and suffocating me in the process. It’s incredible having someone constantly there distracting you from getting anything done. I know what you’re thinking. I should’ve put a stop to it sooner. It’s easy to say that from the outside looking in. When you’re in the heat of the situation, it’s not that transparent. It took me six weeks into the friendship before I realized it was taking a massive toll on me before I attempted to dial it down. Long story short, I quit the moderator role since Laine’s career is soaring. Now, I need to concentrate on my career. I also removed the stalker from my life, freeing up my time to focus on what’s important.

Being off course for most of this year, it’s not easy to get back on track. Lately, I feel like my life has been a chaotic mess. I’m barely able to write a column, let alone write one daily. I don’t get started writing until late afternoon. If I do write, I don’t finish until late in the evening. It’s not my ideal, but I’m grateful that I wrote. Days go by when I have no idea what to write. What happened to those days when I had nowhere to go and nothing to do, yet I managed to write about engaging topics each day? I’m busy as heck now, and I have no time to write, but that doesn’t matter because I have nothing to write either.  

That’s not true. I have plenty to write about since the world reopened, I’ve spent time with many people, and I’ve gone to some places. Yet, I have nothing to write? What is wrong with this picture? Oh, I got it. Life is full of experiences, conveniences, and luxuries that only we get to experience in this time period. The problem is that my mind is overwhelmed with information. I realized this a moment ago when a FB friend commented that she loves stories like what I shared on FB about visiting my grandparents’ apartment, where we stayed with them briefly when we moved to San Francisco. That comment was a lightbulb moment for me. Suddenly, all these story ideas flashed before me, and I do have story ideas. Now, I need to manage my schedule and rebuild my routine to get back to my good habits. 

My family’s one-week vacation here just ended, and I’m playing catchup on everything that I didn’t do while they were here. I had a great time with them making coming down from vacay more challenging. Here we are again with November approaching, and it’s NaNoWriMo time again. I’m shooting for writing a novel again. Then, it’s time to prepare for the holidays. See, it’s a vicious cycle. I’m so sorry that I fell off my good habits, it’s incredibly late in the year, but I shan’t give up trying to get back on course. It is what it is. Here’s what I need to do. I need to simplify, set a new game plan, add discipline, and enjoy my path like how it was in simpler times.

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