Transitions and Getting Back to Work After a Break

In our part of the country, it hasn’t rained in quite some time. August seemed to usher in a dry season, leaving our grass withered and yellow, pricking my toes as I walk through it. The air feels more like the Sahara than Southwest Virginia in the summer, a heat we managed to avoid until now.

My month of rest is officially over and it’s time to get back to work. But like most Monday mornings I find myself doing more meandering and less work, more feeling lost and less living in my purpose. Perhaps my time away awakened more within me than I realized. Maybe work is not the thing that defines me, rather it is the expression of a work happening in me.

I’ve tried several times to write this post and come up empty handed. It simply won’t fit the mold I created and used many times over before. Instead of trying to force its shape, I’m embracing its difference.

What did you read?

I took a break from public writing in July, which turned into also taking some time away from social media. In place of writing, I spent a lot of time reading. I read books to research a new topic I’m delving into, books to stretch and grow my faith, and books for the sheer pleasure of reading them. I gave the full list of books I read in my last weekly email, but I also share what I’m reading in my monthly email each month. If you don’t already receive these emails, you can sign up for those here you can sign up for those here.

What was important?

My other goal for this month of stepping back was to prioritize time with my son. During this month he transitioned from having two naps a day to just one and started getting pickier about his food. Mixed in with those quality hugs and cuddles on the couch, were battles at the kitchen table. In retrospect, this was a good month to step away for this reason alone.

As I transition back into my regular practice of writing for a reader, I don’t want to simply go back to doing things exactly the way I did them before because that’s the way I’ve always done it. The risk of burnout was the catalyst of this break, and while I did not step away from everything I do professionally, I did let go of the things I could.

What was life-giving?

Emily P. Freeman introduced me to creating life-giving and life-draining lists, which you can also find in her guided journal. The goal with these lists is not to overthink it, but to simply state in a tangible way what is working and what is not. I won’t share my whole life-giving list, but I’ll share a few things that made the list:

• Fewer weekly deadlines – Writing a blog post each week, creating social media posts centered around that content, writing a weekly email, work obligations I have to other people, to name a few. I didn’t even realize how stressed I felt until I let some of these fall to the backburner for a time.
• Following less of a schedule and more of a rhythm – with the majority of my weekly work gone, I had the freedom to read when I felt like reading (and when do I not?) or writing when I felt like writing or even taking a nap when I felt too tired to do anything else.
• Going to playgrounds with my son – he was born at the very start of the lockdown and quarantine period of 2020, which made us much more reserved and cautious with him than we ever would have been before. At the kind invitation of a friend to join them for a group playdate, we discovered the wonder and joy of playgrounds.

As I said, in the months leading up to my much-needed break I could feel burnout nipping at my heels, taunting me to take on more and more. But one thing I know for sure is no one can do it all without letting something fall through the cracks. With my husband working full-time and me working a part-time job and doing this writing work, the only thing left to fall through the cracks was my family. Without making changes I’m risking one of the most important things in my life, my family.

So, what needs to change moving forward, you ask? I’m only making a change to one area, which is here on the blog. Before, I wrote a blog post every week, no matter how hastily thrown together it was. Moving forward I plan to write only two blog posts a month, giving me time to write better quality pieces for you to read and to dive deeper into the subject matter.

I was surprised to learn after beginning my time away that many others doing this work took time to rest and reflect in July as well. With so many going on vacations, taking last minute time away before the school year begins, or simply practicing the spiritual discipline of a sabbatical, I felt part of a kindred community longing for rest and finding it in the waiting arms of Jesus.