Balls to that.

Firstly a dog update: Poppi has eaten the first pair of alien briefs, all but the waistband. Excellent, I’m some what concerned about the state of her digestive system. Perhaps she’ll poo out a garment.

Today I’m thinking about priorities.

 I work full time for a charity in North Tyneside and part time for a similar charity in Gateshead. In both roles I work with adult and young carers, six days a week I face the same issues and I mainly just listen. This is really rewarding work but I often feel physically and emotionally exhausted. Then there’s comedy, of course this too can be very time consuming, you can find yourself performing numerous evenings out of your week, then there’s the writing and rehearsing or simply supporting your peers at their performances. Why am I doing this? I love it, is that a good enough reason? I only started it for a ‘bit of a laugh’ now it consumes my thoughts. I have no real career path in mind in terms of stand up yet I feel like I’m striving for something other than the mere enjoyment.

That’s work and comedy, then there’s all the other shiz such as; knitting, keeping up to date with music/fashion/art/the news, being nice to my husband, reading life changing literature, glitter, making sure there’s money in the bank, baking delicious cakes, not eating too much cake, having a clean bathroom, photography, seeing friends, walking my dog, cinema, remaining fabulous, getting enough sleep, exercising, eating guilt free eggs, ringing my mam, hugging my nieces and making the bed.

I remember an illustration I heard years ago regarding prioritising stuff in your life. So there’s a glass, four or five golf balls and a number of marbles. The glass is your life, the golf balls represent the important things and the marbles are everything else. The idea is that if you put the important things in life first (golf balls) then all the other stuff will filter in to place around them (marbles) Get it? The question is: how do you identify what are the golf balls in your life?

Recent family tragedies have jolted me in to recognising the fragility and vulnerability of even the strongest of our species (my dad). This has made me cherish my family, a definite golf ball. What about comedy though? Throughout these past traumatic weeks comedy has been a light relief for me, my respite from reality, a colourful bubble of silliness amongst a dark sad world. Laughter and enjoyment are vital but does this make comedy a golf ball? Or maybe it is an accessory to the bigger stuff, a pretty marble: to filter around what’s important.