Staying Alive: How to Maintain a Pulse Amid Laundry, Work, and Childrearing

I am pleased to present the first, of what I hope will be many, special guest posters here in gunfighter world.

Please give a warm welcome to Rachael from CrankMama





Many people spend a great deal of time just getting by each day:
paying the bills, cleaning (or not cleaning) the house, managing
grocery lists and children and soccer games and work. We may
reminisce about our earlier less encumbered days (child-free, sexually
free) but at some point we have to make peace with the fact that this,
whether we like it or not, is our life.

So what of happiness? Energy? Lust for life? How do we keep those alive?

There are clearly many approaches (kabbalah, yoga, vegetarianism,
adultery, television, food, drug and alcohol addiction), some healthy
and some unhealthy, but I think the key to the whole thing is
determination to keep our candles burning.

If we surrender to the onslaught of middle-age (not the physical but
the spiritual malaise) we've already lost the battle. We have to
remain alive and determined to live a passionate life. In this sense,
I think it's a matter of will.

The will to stay alive and keep kicking, despite hardship and weighty
responsibility. We talk and share our real selves with the people we meet, and drop
the pretense and the fakery, the "I have children so all I can discuss
is Billy's potty-training," we bring up sex at a dinner party, we talk
about politics and religion and personal growth.

We refuse to settle. In this way, we stay alive.

****

Gunfighter's Note: Many thanks, Rachael, for being the first volunteer. I really appreciate that you did this, and did it so fast!

GF