I’m writing this while I sit in a waiting room, waiting for someone to call my name.

This is both true literally as well as, I suppose, in a metaphysical level.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that this is not “just a busy time right now” but rather “this is probably how busy I’m going to be for the foreseeable future.”

I’m not complaining about this. But it is a challenge to dial up for the long haul — planning for months, not merely days of stress — because, like most people, I typically use the promise of quiet times as the motivation to power through busy ones.

As the old joke about shoes goes: “But it feels so good when I take them off.”

Currently, the shoes are very tight and every day it feels like someone is giving the laces a good hard tug, just to make sure that they’re really on there.