Every season of life has its own application of Newton's second law of motion: Force. (Force = mass * acceleration)

There's the steady pace of childhood—painfully slow springtime afternoons melting in a hot classroom, and the speed at which Christmas vacations come and go. The ever-changing years of adolescence where we learn the skills of communication that shape our relationships. Really, those hours and hours spent on the phone had a purpose!

Things speed up after that ... college, career, marriage, children.

photo by Mike_tn	via PhotoRee

Perhaps everything seems to "go" faster because we add more mass to our lives—the weight of responsibility in the form of caring for little ones, and making contracts, and paying bills, and so forth.

At each new season there's a period of transition as we take on mass or release it. As my children speed through their own teenage years, becoming less and less dependent on my care (less willing to be dependent on my care, anyway), I find myself floundering, floating from day to day and month to month without enough mass to move steadily forward in one direction. The things that used to propel me through my day, getting everyone up, making them do their chores, leading them through a day of homeschooling, preparing and cleaning up multiple meals, doing chores again, and getting them all in bed on time, those things have all changed.

Potential projects and ideas, things I WANT to be doing, pile up around my ears. Theoretically I have more time to do them, but without any momentum it's hard to get started on anything, so I end up doing things that are completely pointless. Case in point: I spent at least three hours yesterday looking at real estate on the Internet. Are we moving? Not that I'm aware of.

photo by Genista	via PhotoRee

So it's time to regroup. Much like the end of a Star Trek episode, when all is resolved and the captain turns to the navigator and says, "Set a course for ________." That's where I'm at. I've had enough of this commercial break! It's time to find my focus, create a schedule, and get back on track. (I've been saying this to myself for months, but putting it out here in public makes me accountable to my own words!)

I'm setting Friday, April 1 as my first day on my new course, which gives me a bit of time to plan and program ... and figure out how I'm going to break this horrid habit of living in my pajamas and workout clothes.

How have you adapted to change of life's seasons thus far? Any words of wisdom?