Dealing with Stress

I'm not the only one. Job, family, house, writing, exercise -- they are all important. But I know I'm not the only one who feels that something has to slip through the cracks most days in order to finish the immediate tasks that cry out to be done.
Can I afford to quit a stressful, but well-paying job in order to follow my writing dream? And how will I recognize the guidance that tells me to do it or not do it? Is there another opportunity out their for me?
The muscles across my back crisscross with the tension. Right now I just want someone to take care of me.

My Many Lives

When I left the small town in Illinois where I grew up, I lost touch with most of my friends from high school. My family moved away as well, and I went to college, then to Chicago and a new life.
while some people live a life of smooth continuity, with family and friends in more or less the same place, my life has been one of stops and starts and transitions. My siblings and children are scattered all over the country, from Pennsylvania to Alaska to North Carolina to California. I have lived in four states and spent seven years in Costa Rica. I have friends from all the phases of my life. I find it funny sometimes that I have such a variety of friends and acquaintances that I have made along the way. How would my poet friends from New Jersey get along with my cousin who still lives and works on his family farm? Would my former students from Maryland have anything to say to their Costa Rican counterparts? But somehow all these people are connected through --- me!
Recently through the magic of technology I have reconnected with many old friends. And this network of humanity says more about me than it does about them. I love the mix of people that I know -- their differences and similarities, their opinions and thoughts. Crazy as my life sometimes seems to more sedentary people, I like it this way.

Amelia and Shirley

My husband and I saw the movie Amelia tonight, about Amelia Earhart. It was a wonderful film, and I came home with an admiration for her bravery and sense of adventure. She lived her dreams, in a time when women didn't do that very often. She valued her sense of freedom more than anything on earth, and her loss is still felt today.
When I arrived home and checked my email, I found a message from an old friend from high school with whom I have recently connected. He wrote to tell me that another friend, a woman I knew throughout elementary and high school, had passed away from cancer. Shirley was a home town girl, the polar opposite of Amelia Earhart. She went to school, married, had children, worked as a teacher, and died within no more than a hundred mile radius of the small Illinois town where I grew up. But I think Shirley lived her dream, too, although I have not been in contact with her for years. But I remember a very intelligent teenage friend who knew what she wanted. She was happiest with the security of family and close friends.
I am neither an Amelia nor a Shirley. But I have to say I lean a little more toward the Amelia side. I have never flown a plane -- at least, not yet. But I am always up for a new adventure, always ready to try something new. I crave freedom, love a challenge, although I go more for intellectual than physical challenges.
But this isn't about me tonight -- it's about Amelia and Shirley, two women I am thinking about tonight, who both gave their best to the world in their lives.