What sense does work life balance make, when work is such a big part of my life.  How can I balance a part with the whole?  My life includes work AND my family, friends, physical health, spirituality, entertainment and play.

In agricultural times, there was no life without work.  Then there came this physical and temporal separation.  I go to someplace to work.  Then I come home. Now with technology, work isn't a separate place anymore, and it often isn't a separate time - it's 24/7 availability.

For me it isn't about how I allocate chunks of my time - work and everything else. It's whether I feel satisfied, whether I am filling my hours with meaningful stuff.  It's whether I'm present with whatever I'm doing.  I don't want to be half attending to a conversation with my husband or child and half attending to a text interchange with a client.  I don't want to feel guilty when I'm in one place that I'm not in the other.  That requires being able to turn off from time to time, both mentally and actually.  

Work life balance isn't a trade-off, it's about making intentional choices.  Not always finding myself "too busy" for whatever I want to fit into my days, weeks, or years.  It's about passing time, not just clock time.  It's about attending to both accomplishments and fulfillment.

That old death-bed wish is a potent reminder.  What will I say when my time is up.  Will I say "I wish I had spent more time working?"

If you find it difficult to balance the different roles in your life, you're not alone - 58% of Canadians report "overload" as a result of the pressures associated with work, home and family, friends, physical health, volunteer and community service.