I often take long lunches. Being an entrepreneur means I can do that. Except, it’s not the two-martini lunch spent dawdling over a rare steak, kind of lunch.  My long lunches don’t look like power-shopping lunch either. I’m not in the stores, trying on . My long lunches are the time in the day when I pretend I’m a suburban matron doing what suburban matrons do. On Monday I cleaned the house during my long lunch. I had twenty for brunch the day before, followed by a BBQ for the in-laws. And yes, it was a holiday—but this Memorial Day, I still had to work. Tuesday I went to on my long lunch. My daughter-in-law had tennis and dropped the grandkids off from noon to two. We had fun at the lunch and play center, munching on dinosaur chicken nuggets.  And yesterday I spent my long lunch at the country club, with my daughter, my mother and one hundred and fifty, eighty year-old women. My daughter and I enjoyed the book review by on . My mother enjoyed showing off the two of us to her friends.  Today I’m up at 4:00 a.m. because my long lunch is downtown at the law firm . I’m hosting a Lunch & Learn with , chairman and founder of , for the , my favorite cause.

And so goes the story of a woman juggling work, family and volunteer life. I know I’m not the only one with a busy schedule. What’s your day like? How do you get through it? What keeps you sane, what keeps you spiritual? Let’s have a conversation about work-life balance. Tell us with blog comments, and . Put it in a prayer or a poem and share it on our .  We speak the language of a busy woman.

Please help me to step back
from the rush and clamor
of day to day life.  
Help me to disconnect
if only for a few moments
so that I may sit quietly
and do nothing but breathe.  
In this way, may I find the space
and the time to feel Your presence.
To connect with the well-spring of peace
that comes only through
that which is greater than myself.