My Three Ring Life

First, is the ring of family life where I wrangle the beasts through their tricks and shows.

The second ring is where I do that thing God made me to do: counsel teens through life in high school.

Ring number three is the creative and spiritual arena, the place where I develop and nurture myself. Usually this is filled with reading, quilting and quiet time just for me. This ring is often eerily dark and underused.

This summer I'm adding a fourth ring: my doctoral studies. I'm in the thick of the preparatory reading and will start classes in July. If everything goes as planned I'll be called Doc in three years.

As if this isn't enough there are several other rings that involve friendships, extended family and church.

And, just because I can't seem to get enough, I'm adding (really taking it out of retirement) the ring of weight loss. Several years ago, before I met Pangea Man, I lost over 50 pounds. In the last four I've managed to gain most of it back. So, yesterday I started Weight Watchers again. It worked well last time and with the newly revamped program I can't play the, "I-already-know-this-and-shouldn't-pay-attention" game. That game sucks and doesn't help me reach goals.

So, there you have it: the rings of my circus.