Life After Burn-Out

What a nice weekend I had! Three days off from working. Yes, I know next weekend is the official Memorial Day three-day weekend. But I encountered a technical glitch that made it impossible for me to work on my project. That turned out to be a very nice break for me.

The first few months of this year were busy. Very busy, and yet when I look back, oddly stagnant at the same time. There was a huge sense of me spinning my wheels. Among many things that fell by the wayside because I couldn't find the time to do them were my book reviews. I felt like I had lost my focus.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes says to lose focus means to lose energy. You can probably guess which book this passage comes from:

The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we've lost focus is to rush about struggling to pack it all back together again. Rushing is not the thing to do...sitting and rocking is the thing to do. Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas...Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more.

So I read this weekend. And I did tarot readings for myself, too. I felt very restful, just like the way I felt when we were up at the country at our friend Jimmy's house, only I was here in the city and we hadn't gone anywhere at all. And a book review was written, just like that. Which I promptly sent to my editor. I told him he could expect more.

Baby steps, these are. But they are welcome signs of life, life after burnout.