Drawing from the Well
It’s getting bad. It’s been way too many days since I’ve queried or mapped. Today? Maybe. I’m caught up so after-hours work should be at a minimum. We’ll see what happens tonight.
Filling the Well
1984: 87%
Bloodwitch: 17%
The Raven Boys: 34%
I got some time last night to listen to The Raven Boys while I worked late and it is still good. I probably missed some stuff because (as you’ll see below) I was quite tired. That said, at least I got some reading in while I worked. Progress is progress.
Polishing the Well
Yeah, the end of my night looked kind of like this last night. I worked late trying to get a jump on stuff and nearly fell asleep at the keyboard. This morning was a drag, but I’m feeling good now and relieved that I got so much done last night. Now if I can just parley that into knocking back into balance, I’ll be on the right track.
Well Chat
Cheer Squad, Beer Squad
Yesterday we talked about personal support structures and most people would include the people outside their friends and family in that. I break this out separately as their community for a few key reasons: like-mindedness, nature of the connection, and consequences.
Your “community” is the group of people who are like you that you seek out to become your circle. These are your chosen confidants whose chance appearance in your life is chance only in their specific selection and timing. It isn’t like someone you happen to meet in school because you happened to take the same algebra class and you then gravitated toward each other because you got along well and liked the other person and shared some interests, but not others.
Those are your friends.
Your community is more homogeneous in that they are collected around one common topic. For me, that’s writing and reading. Now, that’s not to say that friendships cannot burgeon from the interactions within that community, but the community did not FORM by those interactions; the interactions were secondary. That homogeneity brings a like-mindedness that is helpful when troubleshooting, commiserating, and celebrating, but getting challenged on whole-life balance is something for your support network, not your community.
That covers the first two differences from your support structure, but what about consequences? What happens when there is conflict in your community versus in your support network? You can probably guess. There is a higher likelihood that your community will strain, fracture, or splinter under the stress of conflict than would be seen in your support network.
The way I look at the difference between your support network and your community is in comparing types of root structures. There are two types of roots just like there are two types of support. One is the tap root which is thick, deep, and difficult to remove, but once dislodged, that’s it, the plant is up. The other is a fibrous root system where the roots are thin and shallow but there are great many of them and if some are ripped out, the plant survives because of the remaining roots.
Is one better than the other? Of course not. Each serves a different purpose. Without both, though, you won’t have a diverse, complete, and healthy garden. So get out there and grow your garden so you can glean the fruit of many, many novels throughout your career.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG