Ack. It's been over a week since I last wrote. Shouldn't surprise me, as I look back over last week's calendar. But it's really all the things that aren't on my calendar that fill my days to overflowing, wiping out all opportunities to write.

Who knew it would take up so much time to shovel and shovel and crack ice and shovel more? That it would take 45 minutes to break up the boxes that my new dishes came in? Or that I would make three (3) aborted trips to Whole Foods before I managed to have a completed shopping list from which to work?

Time management. All the books on time management talk about priorities, putting first things first, not wasting your time on what's not important to you. I attempt to do that. So I had lunch with my daughter (a weekly event), listened to my son talk of the girl who might like him, went to a concert with my husband, and visited with several friends during the course of the week.

What they leave out of those time management books, though, is that something has to give. Because something has to give! I had to do laundry, cook, walk the dog, take kids to the doctor, dentist, piano lesson, trumpet lesson, school . . . . And all those unexpected items that came up, such as shoveling and breaking boxes down and rearranging the dishes to fit the new dishes in the cupboards and finding storage for the old dishes? They had to happen, too.

This week, blogging gave. Which is hard for me, as writing gives me so much. When I sit down and form coherent thoughts from the mush that routinely inhabits my cranium, it reminds me that I do have something to say, something worth being said and listened to. And if it is true for me, it is probably true for others--which then prods me to listen to them, too.

Even without that blogging reminder, I did have a very fruitful week of listening to others. I learned that bridges can be repaired, new friends bring joy even when they are in pain, being a mom hurts sometimes, no matter how old your kids are, hospitality is hard work if the work is not shared, and that we never really know all of someone.

Perhaps I wasn't too busy to blog this week because I had too much going on. Maybe I was just too busy listening. And can you ever be too busy listening?

Liz