PEBBLE
When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.
-Eleanor Brown, shared by Becca in Whitewater, WI
BOULDER
You have permission to rest. You are not responsible for fixing everything that is broken. You do not have to try and make everyone happy. For now, take time for you. It’s time to replenish.
-Jim Kwik, shared by Darcy of the West
PONDER
This is often a good time for me to head offline for a little while, to catch my breath and rest up a bit. I’ve learned that building in some extra cushioning as we wind down the year allows me to return refreshed and re-energized for a whole new year of ripply shenanigans.
I know this time of year can be the *opposite* of rest time since so many of us are wrapping up the academic semester and/or the calendar year with the many tasks associated with them. And of course the holidays present themselves as festive and yet so often leave us frazzled.
I recently came across a blog post Don’t Optimize Your Downtime that has become an invitation for me to rethink how the next few weeks could unfold. “No matter what hustle culture says,” Rahul Chowdhury writes, “you don’t need to milk productivity out of every moment.”
Well, I’m guessing the first thing I need to do is face the fact that for the last several weeks I’ve been building an increasingly long list of articles and chores that I had planned to tackle during my downtime…a list I had compiled under the title TO DO DURING DOWNTIME <excuse me while I pause for a moment to go back and read that last sentence again>. So I’m guessing I need to either delete the entire list, or maybe change the title to something like TO DO IN 2023 (or earlier but only if it feels fun and restful).
I know we don’t always have complete control over when we get some restoration time; just be sure you’re not compounding your state of frazzle with self-imposed, lofty aspirations of productivity that don’t ultimately serve you well.
Peace,
Paul
P.S. The next few issues are all rolled up and ready to Ripple, so you’ll continue finding fresh splashes in your inbox while I replenish….I’ll meet you back here soon!
