Next Lifetime

If you were currently in my head, you'd hear me say the term "next career" a lot. While it's not the newest of phrases, it seems common over the past few years as people are finding layoffs and unexpected job changes the norm. Once a person's life reaches a point where they would have to use a term such as "next career" their social media becomes a never-ending stream of inspirational quotes and memes, all of which I would ignore and hashtag something snarky (usually #eyeroll).

Another phrase you'll hear is my head is: "Aren't you tired of this already?" I'm not one to feel the pressure of age, per se, but I am approaching 40, and the part of my mind that's a project manager is wondering why I've missed so many milestones. Everything feels unfinished, chapters feel undone.

It's been almost a month and these are the first words I've written in that time-space. There were priorities to figure out, bills to get paid, sleep to catch-up on. Those "life" items seemed to be a culmination of the cycles I allow in my life and repeat, but why can't I just write?

I left out the "during all this" because it is an open ended question, one that speaks to what I've always wanted to do with my life and one that asks "why can't I just write during all this?"

Do you experience "creative droughts" when the pressures of life show themselves? I'd like to know.