Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus Kajitani

“There is always time for a nap.” – Suzy Becker

Sometimes, writer mama, you feel depleted. Allow yourself this feeling. Allow yourself to rest. It is in repose that our unconscious mind often works out our struggles for us. After a break that our creative sparks reignite.

Let yourself stop. Urge yourself to stop. Take a moment and be silent. Turn off the cacophony. Be done. Hit pause. Nap. It’s okay. It’s good. It will help.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

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Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus Kajitani
“The moment of change is the only poem.”

– Adrienne Rich

Mothers know best that the only constant is change. You know sleep routines vanish once you settle into them. You know yesterday’s shoes won’t fit tomorrow. You know childhoods pass in a blink.

Writers know best that change is the stuff of great stories. You know it is transformation that makes a character blossom. You know surprise makes a suspense novel a page-turner. You know new ideas sell articles.

Writer Mama, you are perfectly equipped to embrace change. So, go ahead, embrace it.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus-Kajitani

“So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.” – Beatrix Potter

Writer mama, your imperfections are what make you special, what make you yourself. Forgive them — better yet, embrace them — as you do in your children or in the characters you create and write about.

Of course you can always work on yourself, grow and evolve. But aim for being true of heart rather than for being perfect. Remember, human imperfections make for the best stories, in writing and in life.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).
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Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.” ~ Jessamyn West

Take a lesson from your kids, writer mama, and leap. Leap off something that seems too high. Explore something unknown. Try on a new style. Remember what it is like to not constantly second-guess yourself, or worry about what others might think. Write with abandon. Call that editor and connect voice-to-voice, not via email. Send that manuscript you fear will be rejected. Shoot for the stars. Swing to the treetops. Take risks. And feel the rush.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus Kajitani

“Not always the fanciest cake that’s there
Is the best to eat!”

~ Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

You don’t need to have it all, writer mama. Or do it all. Allow yourself to simplify – expectations, possessions, plans. Forget more; think: less.

Scrap the all-over-town activities today and give your kids a box of pinecones and art supplies. See what they create. Close the files of long-struggled-over prose, pick up a journal, and simply write your present thoughts. See what you create.

Let yourself off the hook. Remove some clutter. Go back to basics. And watch your voice rise to the surface.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).
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Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus Kajitani

“Every creation is born out of the dark.
Every birth is bloody.”

~ May Sarton

Perhaps you pushed your child’s whole body out of what once seemed a narrow canal in yours. Maybe someone handed him to you in an airport, as you sobbed with utter joy and fear. Or you were literally cut open to give her life.

However your children came to you, becoming a mother is a Herculean act of strength. You did that.

So, come on, that blank page, that nagging rewrite? Nothing. Nothing on you, mama.

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Your sense of humor is a great gift, writer mama.  Rely on it in times of stress.  Remember it when your patience is thin. Use it to your advantage.

Receive a rejection letter with spelling errors?  An editor nit-picking over comma splices?  Choose to laugh instead of seethe. Your son cuts his hair into a mohawk?  Your daughter colors the kitchen table with magic markers?  See the funny story there.  Then write it!

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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms for March

“When one door of happiness closes another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
~ Helen Keller

Rejection is part of every writer’s life, and every mother’s. Editors nix countless manuscripts. Children ignore sage advice. This is part of the process. Use it. To get stronger. Then let it go. And notice, instead, the hour of free-flowing prose. Your child’s sudden hug. Shift your attention to the open doors and your life will feel full of acceptance and opportunity.
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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms

By Megan Pincus Kajitani

“Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them!”

~ Margaret Mitchell

Writer mama, you are a time magician. You create extra hours in a 24-hour-day. Find moments hidden in dusty corners, under bright red playground slides. Craft leads as you sauté onions and pass out crayons. Edit sentences in your three-minute showers.

You know time is what you make of it, and there is no perfect time. You deserve any moment you can get–just for you–so seize it.
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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).

Being Enough: Closing Words for Busy Moms:

By Megan Pincus Kajitani

“Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true!”

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Writer mama, you needn’t be anything but who you are. Embrace your life’s stories, your regrets, your evolving dreams. Honor your messy kitchen, your card-table office, your high-school poems, your food-stained yoga pants. Write from what you know, see and imagine. No more education, time or possessions are needed. No one else is better or worse. So just do it. Be a mother. Be a writer. Be you, and that is enough.
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Megan Pincus Kajitani is a California-based writer mama and recovering overachiever who blogs at Having Enough (In a “Have-It-All” World).