Ten minutes

It’s not a short period of time.

It’s the perfect amount of snooze added on to a morning alarm.

It the precise amount of time it takes me to walk from the 31st floor of the building where I work to Ogilvie Train Station, barring additional stops on the elevator ride down.

When presented with a deadline of ten minutes, it’s just enough time for me to take a quick shower, get dressed, throw some product in my hair, a splash of makeup on my face, and get out the door.

And now, this is the window of time I need to write each day for my latest learning experience at WestSide Improv, Ensemble Sketch class.

Ten minutes a day. I’m cool with it. I have been craving a new challenge and I’ve found it. Because I like to be efficient, I’ll kill two birds with one stone. Ten minutes to write, and maybe ten more to edit and publish, and look at that, I’m writing again and blogging again! I’ll do this through November 6.

Why is doing both important? Why not just dedicate time to one? Why can’t be monogamous with a goal? Because there are two communities, whose my obligations to will be fulfilled.

I have my community at WestSide, in this case, the members of my class, and I also have my WordPress, blog community. As writers, we need to read and write. When I am committed to and connected to my WordPress community, I’m a better writer, and I read a lot more. I’ve been making decisions of late, like the 1.5 hours on the train every day to work. And while I might get ahead of some things, it doesn’t bring me joy, like writing does, and reading others’ work, too.

By leveraging my WordPress community, I’m that much more valuable to my WestSide community. Because both require writing. And writing, well it’s my exploratory outlet. So the more I write, the more craziness I’m bound to explore for my class at WestSide.

In fact, writing through this, I found a new name for myself, a joy hugger, or joy monger, or joy hogger, or joy addict, or joy doper. I simply crave joy. The things in life I love the most, are those that bring me unadulterated joy.

Like my family, my sisters’ smiles, my brothers’ laughs, my father’s laugh, my mother’s laugh. When they are happy so am I.

My daughter, on days that she wants to be around me, and she’s silly, I’m all in.

Friendships, like my friend Karin, who wants me to go over to her house this morning and help her choose an outfit. I’m no fashion diva, but if she wants my help, I’m there for her.

And with that, I need to stop. I filled my window. That is ten minutes. Ten minutes to find a premise, write through it and draw a conclusion. I’ll write about the silliness in the world through November 6, and because I’m an efficient person I also feed my “joyful dope” addiction. The world will be a better place. I’ll be a better mom, daughter, mother, cousin, co-worker, and friend. Because everything improves with practice and regularity,  I’ll be a better writer, too. So I’ll challenge myself to do just that.

Cheers to finding your own source of joy, too!

Head’s Up: Ten minutes is not the perfect amount of time to try on eyeglasses with your daughter at Costco. Lesson learned.