Years ago, I heard a great analogy about the way men think and process versus the way women think. Sure, it’s a generalization, but in my experience, it’s generally true. Men, the analogy goes, have brains that function like waffles: They compartmentalize each thing going on in their lives into its own section, like those little squares in waffles that trap syrup, and process each square individually. On the other hand, women’s brains are more like spaghetti: Everything in their lives flows together and touches everything else. I think it’s a great analogy, because I ate spaghetti last night, so I have a very recent reminder of how messy it actually is. The way my brain functions can be pretty messy, too.

Let’s back up a moment here. My brain may be all spaghetti, but I get things done . . . if they have to be done. If they have a deadline. If there is a consequence for me not getting them done. So all my work projects usually take precedent and run smoothly, without fail, and also without fail, I don’t get around to more inconsequential everyday tasks, such as clearing out my inbox or hanging up those pretty bird paintings that have been stacked in my TV console for two years. No matter what I’m doing lately, I’m probably thinking about five other things at the same time. As I plan an upcoming shoot, I’m simultaneously attempting to draft a grocery list in my head, and as I get dinner on the stove, I’m rushing back to the computer to send several just-remembered-but-really-could-wait e-mails.

Which is why I caught my frying pan on fire last night.

Danny kept cool. “No, everything here is fine,” he calmly assured the ADT dispatcher as our alarms screeched to the contrary.

Thank God for smoke detectors. And that my whole kitchen didn’t go up in flames as I clicked away at the keyboard in my office. There wasn’t any damage, even to the pan, and nothing but oil was in the pan yet, so I was still able to make chicken Parmesan. Once the smoke cleared. But you’d better believe I didn’t go back to my computer again once I re-started dinner!

Entering the kitchen to a flaming stove was actually a pretty great wake-up call. For weeks, I’ve been feeling stress from not having work hours and free time. Like everything in my brain, it had all started running together — and I thought I liked it that way. But I hated editing photos at midnight. Hated seeing my supposedly “free” Saturdays evaporate as I worked some more. Hated that we’d prioritized work above almost everything else, so that our volunteer time at church and household chores and cooking meals felt like such disasters that they might literally go up in flames.

That’s going to change, as of now. No more midnight editing. No more filling up my free days with little tasks I can easily tuck into the work week. No more piles of laundry I’m too busy to sort. No more kitchen fires!

I’m moving to make a lot of changes, to both the way Danny and I run our business and the way I run my life. I have to change them at the same time because of that whole spaghetti thing — but I’m working on tidying up my spaghetti brain, too. That means reorganizing and reassessing my priorities, setting more long-term and short-term goals, creating a clear schedule to get my work — photography, housework, church work — all done in a timely manner with my sanity intact, and striving to stay focused on one task at a time. Maybe some of these changes will be clearly visible from the outside, or maybe Danny and I will be the only ones who feel their impact. But I can’t wait to set this life shake-up into motion.

And, except for candles, I truly hope there won’t be any more flames in this house.
~ Laura