Does your bag represent your life?

Of chaos, colour and a cup of tea

In the eye of the storm

In the midst of my maelstrom week: the deadline for submission of my entire manuscript to my editor due tomorrow, delivering a ‘How to get a Book Deal’ Masterclass to

Suzy Walker

Heart Leap community yesterday, three short story deadlines - two of which are due today, Taz’s fifteenth birthday and the whole casual winds of mothering and life blowing through and disrupting anything and everything… I took myself out to my place of sanity this morning. To the lake.

And breathe.

As I met up with my bestie and dumped my swim bag down on the bench next to her neatly ordered pile - she looked as me wryly and said: ‘is that bag representative of your life?’

God. Yes. Yes, it really is.

Chaotic, bulging at the seams, colourful, overloaded, elephants hiding in the background (I can see them on my purple woolly hat!!) and the whole thing centred by a cup of tea.

It’s like I planned it.

The bag of life

My bag, (and my home!) are currently so representative of my life. Things are out all over the place, surfaces are cluttered, tea is a constant, lots is in progress. Everything is open, nothing is closed - but that is how my brain is this week. I’m in a creativity and productivity explosion - and you know what? I absolutely love it.

So I’m going to ride it out until tomorrow, then after a long snooze, I may start to tidy, to order, to fold… but actually, who am I kidding, my bag looks like that most of the time. Yet despite the apparent chaos, it has everything I need. Nothing is forgotten, nothing is left undone. It may not look pretty, but it’s doing what it needs to do: containing, protecting, holding - and equipping me to step into the waters ahead.

Swimming in the rain

I love my saggy and overloaded bag, and chuckled at how uncannily it represents my life as I swam in the peeing rain this morning, giving my brain the jolt it needed to be hyper productive today…although I have clearly come straight back onto Substack instead of to my manuscript (ssh don’t tell my family). So for now, tidying the bag can wait - I’ve got more pressing things to do…

Wish me luck!

I’m interested - does your bag represent your life?! Is it neat and ordered, carefully looked after, or is it bulging with bits missing, scuffed around the edges, or perhaps even totally lost!

I’d love to hear,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx