Life Maintenance

I am struggling with living. No, no. Not the actual act of remaining alive; I’m not considering offing myself. I’m struggling with the concept of carrying on a well-lived life, of making the life I am currently living and intend to do so for another 70 years or so more meaningful.

I have previously bored y’all with a discussion of my schedule, but most recently I have been working three to four days in a row. As is my wont, I have a predictable when my workdays fall into this schedule: I work and then spend the next few days catching up on life maintenance.

Life maintenance is a catch-all term for the grocery shopping, dish washing, library going, apartment cleaning, and cat attention paying that must happen after four days of work induced neglect. However, in the past two days I have begun to question the meaningfulness of spending my days off addressing such mundane and menial matters. There isn’t much value in these tasks beyond my own life; does that make doing them unworthwhile?

The answer to that question is no, which I came to whilst run/hiking today. Said tasks are necessary for even the most altruistic of us; without their being accomplished there is no infrastructure from which to base other activities. The key, I discovered today, is to balance the mundane and menial with the exciting and altering to my personal world, if not the world at large.

There is a satisfaction in accomplishing life maintenance activities, but they’re not fulfilling. They need done again and again and again. But going to restorative yoga Friday night, as I did, contributes to positive worldwide karma and leaves me feeling peaceful. And run/hiking the five-mile loop over Dinosaur Ridge, through Matthew/Winter’s Park, and past Red Rocks contributes to my training for a half-marathon and maybe running a relay this fall.

And swimming Monday after work, going to yoga Wednesday night, and tending Julie’s garden in her absence will help to off-set the annoyance I feel at the five loads of laundry that should be able to wash themselves. I hope.