One of the things I have learned about getting just a little older is that not only do I get tired faster, it takes longer to recover. I watch my twenty-four year old daughter and her collection of energy shots and recall the days when I drank several pots of coffee a day without any ill effects. Now I find that if I drink enough coffee to power me through a string of long days it takes a toll on my stomach and points south. I am currently on a string of two weeks with only one down day and am not holding up as well as I would have even ten years ago. With any luck at all, today will be my last full day and then I will be able to slow down a little.

I believe we all have particular rhythms that our body is attuned with and functions best under. I am not a morning person, for example. I function best when I don’t have to really be in action until at least ten in the morning, but I can function well late into the night. In fact, my most creative periods start about four in the afternoon and continue until sometime around midnight. When life intervenes and one of our cars drops its transmission – as happened last weekend – and I have to get up to take Erin to work so I can use the car, I find that I get run down pretty quickly. In a perfect world, I could just decide to change my schedule and insist on meeting people and events in accord with my needs. As we all know, however, this world is far from perfect.

I’m learning that – and it really horrifies me to admit it – that I have something of an artist’s temperament without many artistic skills. I now understand that I am extremely creative after years of thinking myself one of the least creative people on the planet, and I feel it is my creative side that longs for a non-traditional schedule. Unfortunately I have a stomach that longs for some very traditional things like meals. I haven’t found a way to have my schedule and eat, too, but I am working on it?

I know I am not alone in this, though our details may be different. How many of us are up against traditional schedules and find them less than optimal? How have you found ways to cope? I would love to hear your responses!