Finding your balance

As we were doing a final read of this issue before sending it to press, it seemed like every fifth word was "spring." That's a little strange for a bunch of editors living in Southern California, where what passes for winter would easily count as spring in 90 percent of the country. So why are we--much less all of you from Montana to Maine--so riveted by the word spring, and "April" too?

I think because, far more than January, April is the season of flesh starts. In January; you may resolve to change in some way or other, but then cold weather settles in and saps your resolution. Life becomes about getting cozy and making hearty soups and organizing your recipes or your email. But in April, there are deadlines. If you don't get the lettuce planted, the new bathing suit bought and the shutters painted by a certain date, it will be too late for the lettuce, too hot to paint and too hopeless in terms of swimsuit choices.

Spring's message is simple and exciting: Get outside and get to it! Winter and summer are the take-a-break seasons. Spring is when we love to hustle, fueled with energy from the breezy air and long, light-filled days. This is the time of new beginnings, not January. So I'm goingto forget any New Year's resolutions I made (okay, I mostly already have) and makesome spring resolutions instead. Here's one of them: Somehow, I'm going to get some of that elusive "balance" back into my life. That's the single most important, and most difficult, thing on my get-to-it list--and I'll bet it is on yours too.

That's partly because we're our own worst enemy. As our leaders keep boasting, American productivity is the marvel of the world. Individually and collectively, we keep stunning ourselves, our bosses, economists and the global competition with our ability to do more. And more. And more. Even then, we assume we can always fit in something else, and we do. But along the way, we forget how to slow down.

Now, a lot of what we do is critical: Animals need rescuing, foster kids need far better care, forests need saving, coasts need restoring, literacy and arts programs need supporting, friends and family need love and attention.

But when I reel over my personal high-pressure list, I try to remember this mantra: "It always gets done." And it does. Not all of it on schedule, but that rarely really matters. If I take an hour here, a day there, a week now and then to do the things that make me smile, my productivity won't drop. I'll still hit the critical deadlines. So will you. And you'll be happier and healthier for having taken the hour, the day, the week ... even if you use them to plant the lettuce, shudder over the bathing suits ... and decide the shutters can wait till next spring.

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