Taking a break

This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for taking a break.

I don’t know why I didn’t just tell you last week that I wanted/needed/was giving myself permission to not write #thankyouthursday on Christmas Eve and/or possibly New Year’s Eve.

Probably because as someone who works remotely at all hours as a contractor and who now also provides full-time child care, "taking a break" is more of an abstract concept than a concrete plan.

But I am learning that if I don’t make concrete plans for space and rest, I do not receive space and rest. I mean, even when I do make plans for space and rest they don’t always work, but, at least then I tried?

Anyway, here it is, Christmas Eve, almost 11 a.m., and I finally got the baby down for a nap, and work commitments wrapped up yesterday, and, after a couple of really challenging weeks of making all.the.things happen, I have at last reached a stretch of maybe even a whole half hour where I do not have to do anything at all right now.

Except, I am writing you right now. Because as much as I genuinely enjoy and value the opportunity to connect with you with gratitude each week, I also view it as a personal practice of discipline and accountability. Some weeks there is nothing else I do for my writing except type you this message, so, if I were to go silent without notice, I would be possibly disappointing you and definitely disappointing me.

But as soon as I press send? I am taking a break! And if you don’t hear from me next week, don’t worry. (Although, you might still hear from me, because I’ve found that often when I give myself permission to NOT do something, doing it becomes much easier or even desirable.)

As for you, I hope you know that you deserve a break, too. Maybe you can even get one.

Love > fear,

Christina