Hard work keeping an enjoyable work-life balance

As you may have worked out if you are a regular reader of my column, I am all about books, community and culture in both my professional and private life. I work hard at trying to maintain work / life balance. These past few weeks the balance has been off kilter, with long hours being put in to The Whanganui Literary Festival and co-ordinating The LiterARTies exhibition at Gallery on Guyton. I know that I am not alone in my endeavours to bring alive events for our community. When I look at the huge amount of celebrations, exhibitions, awareness raising or fundraising events that our city holds, it goes without saying that there are a multitude of people behind those, most of whom go unpaid and at times unacknowledged. I know that my time is precious, like a lot of people I am time poor. Time, at times, is worth more than money. To commit to something outside of my work and my family time means that I am passionate about it, I believe in it and I will sacrifice my time, which is utterly precious, to making it happen. I am in love with books, literature, bookshops and libraries and so The Whanganui Literary Festival is worth my time and energy. To say that it is an iconic Wanganui event is true, but it is so much more. It is truly a boutique festival, featuring some of New Zealand's finest authors where you can get up close and meet the authors, even wine and dine with them. A New Zealand fiction fan's dream! To complement the Literary Festival and one of my other loves, art, I invested some time and energy into helping co-ordinate The LiterARTies Exhibition.
This exhibition is to celebrate The Whanganui Literary Festival 2015 and has some of Wanganui's finest artists showcasing their works which are based on literature. It is well worth having a look, it's a beautiful and eclectic mix of art of individual artists' take on literature. Invest your spare time wisely, commit to things are passionate about and bask in the enjoyment that not only you get in doing it, but in those who benefit from it.
Tickets for the Whanganui Literary Festival are on sale at The Royal Wanganui Opera House and there are some door sales at the events, excluding High Tea and Gumboots, which is sold out. I hope to see many of you there, please say hi, soak up the literary festival vibe and keep reading!
Carpe Librum!
¦For more information on any of the activities mentioned above or comments, please feel free to call in at The Gonville Café Library, email kelly@wanganuilibrary.com or find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/inkedlibrarian