What I am doing instead of writing here:

• Writing (and editing and re-editing and…) an academic paper on teaching.
• Writing a lot of clinical notes. This is truly beating any creative phrasing skills I may have once had, unless one considers diplomacy a “creative phrasing skill”.
• Studying for my oral board exam. It’s scheduled in April. I need to start scheduling mock oral board exams. Bleh.
• Training for a half marathon. It takes a lot of time. I’ll be relieved when I am not running for two consecutive hours on Sunday mornings… though, as with many people, I tend to be more productive when I am busy. (If you want to lose weight, train for a half marathon. But you can’t eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet after the long runs. That negates any weight you might have lost while running. And training for a half marathon in the winter in New York can be… challenging.)
• Reading. Newspapers, journals, articles, letters. Most of it is still related to professional stuff, not leisure stuff.
• Practicing distress tolerance skills. I shan’t elaborate further.
• Admiring this stuff called snow. While some people envy the perennial sunshine in California, these things called “seasons” are wonderful. I am grateful for long underwear, down-filled vests, acrylic hats, and mittens.
• Staying in touch with friends in far-flung places. The time difference is significant.
• Wishing I was writing more here.

Writing is one of those things where you kinda have to make time for it or it just won’t happen. It has to be a habit. When I was at my most prolific, I was writing on a daily basis because that’s just what I did: writing here was part of my nightly routine. It was the last thing I did before retiring for bed (which, incidentally, is what is happening right now—after this, I’m turning in). Because it was a habit, it didn’t matter if I thought I didn’t have anything to write about; something would flow out of my brain, through my fingers, and onto the screen. Now that I’m out of the habit, I’m notably more critical and, frankly, lazy about elaborating ideas into posts.

I will also observe that, when I perceive that I have little to no influence over a significant situation, I become more… oppositional? subversive? motivated? in other arenas. Tie this to distress tolerance skills above. This is how challenges in life help us grow and perhaps influence the world so it can be a better place. I’m just sayin’.