
Jolene Roehlkepartain
Where Are You Going?

How do you know when you’re going in the wrong direction?
Recently, I was locked out of a meeting. As I sat in my car, waiting for someone with a key to show up, I faced this sign: Wrong Way.
That sign spoke to me. It was exactly what I was experiencing. I had overcommitted myself (again), and here I was: Going in the wrong direction.
All the commitments I had made were good ones. Each one made sense, but when I put them all together. Well…I found myself hurtling down a path I didn’t want to be on.
That’s what difficult about writing. It takes time. My writing informs my life, and my life informs my writing. I need a balance between my writing life and my everyday life. That balance leads me down the path of the Right Way.
This realization led me to reassess my major priorities, and I backed out of a number of commitments. Once I did that, my mind cleared, my body relaxed, and the flow for my writing returned.
I was back to going in the right direction.