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By Scott Gilbertson

I have a confession : I like my BlackBerry.

I like checking my work email at home at all hours. I like reading about what's happening at work when I'm supposed to be decompressing on vacation . It comforts me somehow. I know what's happening. I'm not missing something important, delaying my response to something crucial, or walking back into the office unaware of a brewing crisis.

Now if I'm being honest, almost never IS there a brewing crisis–certainly not one that I can't deal with swiftly when I sit down at my desk first thing in the morning. But somehow it doesn't matter. I've woven my personal and professional lives together in my patterns and habits, and I'm OK with that.

OK, more than OK with it. It partly defines how I think about my life. When I was on maternity leave, colleagues would chastise me for constantly being on email–as if I was so stressed by work that I couldn't stop checking in. What they didn't realize was that checking in to work during that time was essential for my mental well being! Work is stimulating.

Even now, sometimes when I can't sleep, I get up and check email at odd hours of the night. It's not because of stress, it's because it's helps my mind focus on something other than what woke me up. Now I'm not sure I should admit any of this to my husband. He looks at me with sympathy when I pick up the BlackBerry while on vacation–and occasionally it does mean I have to find a quiet corner to call someone and smooth something out. And I don't relish being in touch when technology limitations make it difficult to do so . Or when I am truly, deeply in a family moment and I don't want to think about work. But in reality, most of the time, I want to stay in touch–it's interesting.

So I confess, I have blurred the lines between work and home and I've done it on purpose. One feeds and stimulates the other. How about you? Are those lines sacred or do you, like me, secretly like being at home and at work at the same time?

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