As this is posted, I’m probably already back at work. But as I write this, I’m on what is likely my last week of vacation, sick leave after recovering from a surgery. This isn’t the first time I’ve taken a break from work to write. I find it helpful.
Back around 2014, when I shifted jobs, I found time for a four day retreat. I took a fresh journal and something to write with and I went to a quiet retreat location with lots of nature and contemplation.
During those four days, I scraped my brain to come up with every lesson, big or small, that I’d learned in my first job after college. And it was helpful. 🙂 It helped me process all the highs and lows of the work, the burnout and everything else. And I went to my new job after that retreat, refreshed and optimistic.
Oh, and in four days I filled that journal, too.
When the pandemic hit, I found spare time to retype and edit my novel. Having something to do made the isolation an eetsy bit less hellish, but isolation was still a hell I hope to never endure again.
This time around, with my surgery recovery vacation and friends nearby every day to help me with basics like food and picking things up that a temporary cripple can’t reach… The isolation wasn’t as complete, but the time set aside to contemplate and write was still energizing all the same. I enjoy my breaks from work. And I hate sleeping in. I’d rather be productive. So I’ll keep chiseling away at the last corrections to my novel, hoping to finally send it to the publisher this month for consideration.
Here’s hoping. 🙂
(Edit: Due to an injury or two, I’m only going back to work next week)