Curse and Blessing of Jury Duty

🙏 Bless the Jury Duty gods this week: I cleared my schedule and haven’t yet been called to serve!

Last week, though, I was cursing those very same gods.

My friend and I had planned a creative retreat. We’d reserved a beautiful spot in Upstate New York, gifted to us by a friend, and were so excited to go.

I’d already deferred jury duty once, so that card had been played, so we had to cancel our trip.

When I accepted my fate, something unplanned filled that empty space.

My mother had a freak accident in the back of an Uber.

When she got in, the seat was reclined nearly flat—a fancy car, she said. 

She reached for the lever to adjust it upright, but instead, it flung forward and hit her in the back of the neck giving her a serious concussion.

Luckily, I had no retreat, no jury duty, and no clients on the calendar.

Just me—looking after Mamma.

My mom now lives just ten minutes from me and she has needed a lot of attention over the past year for a variety of reasons.  

If I'm telling the truth here, it often felt like a burden.

This time however, being present to what she needed felt easier than in recent memory, when my schedule is booked with clients or filled with deadlines for my biz that challenge my willingness to drop everything and make space to help my mom.

So now, I’m pinging 🚗 between her home and mine to feed the 🐶 🐱animals, walk the dog, and check in with my kids.

And while doing this, something cool is happening.

With the acute concern for my mom’s safety lifted,  I have been able care for my mom with relative emotional ease.  

In between concussion protocol, her meds, and frequent servings of Jell-O and applesauce, that ease has given way to creative thought.

Without much effort, I seem to be processing questions I’ve been carrying around in my pocket for the past few months:

• What is the commitment I am wanting to make next?

• How does that align with what I want to create for my life - not just in my work, but in every area of my life that matters to me.

• Is there a risk I am avoiding or choice I am afraid to make?

Just that little bit of space—a different schedule, not the perfect schedule, but a little shake-up—awakened my creativity.

I opened my journal for the first time in a while this week and it felt so good to explore underneath those questions. 

It was exciting.

A welcome gift amidst the chaos of uncertainty.