#144 Keeping in touch and two new poems

Sharing something new

Hello friend,

Sorry I’ve been out of touch. I’m probably the flakiest acquaintance you’ll ever have. I like to go off on a tangent, get lost in a book, in my head or inside any particular fixation of the moment and forget the outside world.

I have an obsessive personality, which makes for great creative content but isn’t good for maintaining connections with friends and family. I’m very easily distracted, and for some reason, perhaps the dreaded perimenopause. My attention span is becoming shorter and shorter, and pretty soon, it's going to be about the same as that of a goldfish.

So here is my attempt at keeping in touch. Let me know how you’ve been.

Things with me have been rather mundane. I’ve been trying to be gentle with myself, eating healthy, getting some exercise every day, doing a bit of housework, keeping myself organised at work, and fitting in enough self-care to keep me feeling well.

I find myself having difficulty juggling everything and everyday life. If I spend time writing or dedicate a moment to something else that may require more intense brain power or attention, it throws things a little off-kilter.

Like when you sleep in in the morning and find yourself running to catch up to your regular schedule, too much sleep puts you out of sync. Actually, that’s probably not the right metaphor for what I’m trying to say or how I’ve been feeling; it’s more about finding the right way to schedule your time.

You only have a certain number of hours during the day, and you need to find a way to maintain a good and healthy routine while also doing the other things you want or need to do.

Usually, during the week, I dedicate the mornings to reading and writing. Then I get my son off to school, and I do the housework and my self-care routine, plan out my lessons (as I am currently tutoring some English students), and then, in the mid-morning, go out for a bit of a walk. The rest of the days are pretty automatic. I prepare lunch and work in the afternoons. Evenings are about winding down.

Writing a post like this takes more time and concentration, so I find myself stealing 10 minutes here and there to write a draft. Today, I’m lucky that I have a lesson-free afternoon, so I’m using the time I usually have for lesson planning to write.

Is it just me, or do you feel like there are never enough hours in the day to do everything you’d like?

Sinagra, Messina ©Rochelle Del Borrello 2025

As I mentioned in the last edition of this newsletter, my letters will be a little less frequent this year. I’ve been feeling tired and burnt out, so I’m giving myself a chance to rest and hibernate at this time of year.

Once I get some more momentum, I’ll try to keep in touch more often through different types of posts. This year I thought I’d experiment more. I’m tired of writing only about my experiences as an expat in Italy; I also want to share more aspects of my story. After all, we are all multifaceted individuals, so why not share some other things?

After all, this newsletter is called "A Load of My Mind," and it is supposed to be about whatever is on this writer's mind. So be prepared for more variety in 2025.

So far, apart from some short note-taking, I haven’t been writing much long-form writing, but looking back through my notebook, I have written a couple of poems that I kind of like.

I usually dislike my first drafts, particularly my poetry. I typically leave them to rest in my notebooks and go back to them later to see if there is anything worth salvaging or something I can re-draft into something better. So, I was surprised to find two first drafts I’m happy to share with you.