This morning I rose at 5:30am, went for a walk with the dog, returned home to water the seedlings all cosy in their pea-straw and then made a coffee and got back into bed. Is this my new favourite morning ritual? Perhaps!
I’m starting to feel the exhaustion of this end-of-year season. Can you feel it too? There’s an undeniable weariness settling upon my household; the kids are sleeping in every morning which requires my rallying enthusiasm to rouse them in time for the school bus, there’s an increasing number of school commitments in line with waning interest and I’ve still got a significant workload to tick off before I can actually switch off.
As I get closer to book deadline (I loathe that word) I’m really conscious of carving out downtime; very intentional, planned and protected downtime. I’ve written three books in three years which was never the grand plan but it just worked out that way. It’s been a lot. I’m ready for a break but I also know that I’ll miss the buzz of having a publishing contract and a project on the go; doing the work each day but knowing that I can look ahead and ‘see’ the end result. Sometimes it’s nice to know where you’re going, even if you’re not quite sure how you’re going to get there.