Don't overlook the obvious, fool.

  As soon as I sat down to write this, my stomach started to rumble, reminding me that I've had coffee and no breakfast yet, though I've worked in the studio for over two hours.  So I stopped to pour a bowl of Cheerios with a hand full of almonds thrown in.  And some juice.  My knee jerk would've been to grab another cup of coffee, but I remembered a conversation I had with Orion last week about how important breakfast is.  In the middle of it, I'd remembered I hadn't eaten either:

"I have a confession."
"What?"
"I didn't eat breakfast this morning either and I've been up longer than you.  I can't expect you to listen to my advice if I don't follow it myself, can I?"
He took my hand in his small one, looked me in the eye and said," You've been doing that a lot lately, Mom."
And then he gave me the Cheese Touch and victory-danced away.
 
  Maybe you're a professional artist like me, or a writer, or own a small business.  Maybe you're a parent or student.  Maybe you're affected by the recession and pushing hard to recover, or maybe you're putting in extra hours for a project or a better job. Maybe you're dealing with a personal challenge.

  Very likely, where you are today is some combination of the above and whatever that is, you find yourself in a juggling act. You may be running faster and working harder than you ever thought you would, to get to something you might not be sure you want, or that might come on its own if you let it.

I'm going to eat breakfast and swim every day.   I don't know why I stopped but somewhere in there I decided that I didn't have time for it.  I'll make that eye exam appointment, brush and floss, take breaks when I need them.   I'll take my own damned advice.

Thing is, if we don't take care of ourselves, we're already doing a poor job. It's a product of short-sightedness and, in a sense, selfishness.  The stress on our faces affects those around us.  Our energy levels affect our performances overall.

Balls get dropped. 

  If we take  care of our projects, tools and other people and neglect ourselves, the juggling act is just that - an act.