Today, it became very necessary to go to the ocean.
We called it quits early on remote schooling, put away Zoom meetings and notebooks and glue sticks, and piled into the car.
The boys needed it as much as I did.
The energy of now has seeped into all of us (no matter how thoroughly I have tried to protect them from it). They may not be able to name it, but they feel it. And if they don’t feel it, they see it on my face ((Mom, why do you look sad?” my 9-year-old has asked me four times in a week.))
I’m exhausted. I know you are too. I’m depleted and I know many of you are too. I’m pretty day-to-day. And I bet lots of you are too.
So here’s my advice:
* Shelve it. Do less. Don’t answer the emails or messages. Skip it. Call in sick. Do what’s fundamental and no more. If you have to, apologize later.
* Tell yourself the truth. About your life, your choices, what has to change, what you can no longer do or be or take on. Shelve the tasks but don’t shelve the truth. This is no time to ignore whatever difficult, looming, challenging truth pulsates through your veins. You don’t have to solve it right now – just be sure you don’t deny it. Whatever “it” is.
* Sleep. Read books. Be in nature. And yes, it’s okay to binge whatever on Netflix. Just balance it. Take the kinds of breaks you need. Aim to make 50% of them truly restorative.
* When you have sparks of energy or clarity or get-up-and-go, fill those moments with the purest of intentions and the deepest of truths. Pledge to strip away what keeps you from your soul, your path, your most honest life. Use these moments as fuel for the future…the future that is beginning right now.
We’re in it, my friends.
A rebirth. A transformation. Death. New life. Take care but don’t hide. Rest while cozying up to truth. Take one step at a time while you eye the big leap just up ahead.
And, when you don’t know what to do, go somewhere (outside of you or inside of you) that feels like truth.
Like the ocean…with its freezing cold heart-shaped rocks, moon-dazzled tides, and cannot-be-stopped cyclical nature. Unapologetic Universal truth.
