On my mind

I’m euphoric. I am so, so happy about Obama’s inauguration. To paraphrase a woman I heard on the radio, I am in love with that man. In love.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the value of writing, of keeping a journal as a way to clarify thought and as a reflective practice. I am a little frustrated that there is not more opportunity to reflect through writing. Being a graduate student is busy enough, but having a family and the demands that come from being a husband, a father, and just managing our home and other temporal needs really places writing a bit lower on my list of priorities than when I was single. Of course, a good deal of what I wrote about when I was single was how I wanted a family!

I’ve also been thinking about how I manage my time specifically related to school work. I have this annoying practice of working based on how much time I have rather than how much work I have to do. For example, if I have five hours to write a paper, I’ll take five hours to write it. If I have one hour, I’ll get it done in one hour. I am trying to focus this semester on finishing things rather than doing things. I have a couple big papers due at the end of this semester that I would love to have done well before they are due, rather than minutes before they are due, as happened last semester. I find that in graduate school I probably learn more about how to manage time and how to work with others more than I learn about the content of what I am studying (process over content… fellow therapists will get that).

On the home front (what an odd phrase, rooted in the language of war!), Ethan is having his 5th birthday party on Saturday. Roseli’s throwing him a pirate party. We’ve (meaning mostly Roseli and Ethan) have been immersing ourselves in all things pirate for the past three weeks. I think this was inspired by my Halloween costume. I was a pirate at the suggestion of one of my classmates.