involuntary hiatus

Regrettably, Spirit Rituals has been relegated to the back seat over the last couple of weeks. Not only have I been immersed in my studies toward commencing my career as a teacher this fall, but my youngest son was hospitalized last weekend with an "immature" breathing condition precipitated by an upper respiratory infection. He is gradually doing better now, but suffice it to say I have had little time to separate my mind from matter of late. Gratefully, I have been enjoying school at Northwestern University in what amounts to a crash/accelerated course toward teaching. I've been meeting some interesting, well-intentioned individuals, and although the course and student-teaching loads are increasingly demanding, I've always found that life is substantially more manageable when one lives and thinks day by day and doesn't obsess too much about the mountainous paths ahead. I'd love to be more specific about my course work and my current journey, and perhaps I will do so in time, but any professional student will recall that when you are a student, you are either: 1) in school/commuting to/from school; 2) doing homework; and/or 3) should be doing homework. Alas, under the cloud of such a realization, most other time is wasted time. Of course that is a stretch, somewhat. It's ever interesting to me to encounter fellow students who are single and/or have no kids who gripe about the work load and work/life balance. Not to downplay the relative trials and tribulations of others (and indeed, so much is relative), the time and single-mindedness afforded single/kidless people is, um, just slightly more than that afforded married/with kids people.