Rest

Day 189 of 365

I have never been very good at resting, which is one of the reasons I have loved homesteading and learning to live closer to nature. If I let it, the seasons will teach me how to be. I used to really struggle through the winters in Maine, but after a few years of homesteading, I came to love them. I just had to learn how to embrace the rest of the winter season, which is somehow what I have needed to do my whole life, I think.

There’s work in the winter, of course. If there are snow storms, it can be epic taking care of the animals, and then there’s the ice busting, though I have come to see that as a kind of meditation. But, for the most part, unless I am working too much with my teaching, winter is a time of coziness that I am looking forward to extra this year.

It just now turned cold, finally. It was so warm last week that I was wearing capri pants and no jacket in Maine in November. Isn’t that wild? But now it is cold, quite cold, and this reminds me that winter is coming, and I am determined to rest.

Today, my editor for a scientific journal wrote and asked me to take an assignment. I wrote back and kindly said no. I also had an offer for two extra writing courses in January. This was very hard for me to do, but I declined the courses.

I am determined to get some rest. I know most everyone reading this must feel the exact same way. Almost everyone I know is so overworked, so over tired, so over worried, so in need of rest. If you are reading this and need some rest too, I hope you can find it. I hope you can find a way to make it happen.

I have decided to take a long break from one of my jobs (I have too many, though I know so many of us do), and I have promised myself that I will never take another course design project again. They always turn out to be more work than I can possibly imagine they are going to be. I am trying to re-think Farmer-ish. I have to streamline things. I have also decided that we’re just having a roast chicken from our farm for Thanksgiving, and I’ll make a few pies–but that’s it, nothing too fancy this year. And, for the holidays, we are keeping it simple and small. I’ll write about that later.

In the meantime, I finished two big projects last week, so today, I feel a little bit joyful and a little bit hopeful. I hope to have good rest coming. When I have been working too much and get so wound up, it can take me a few days to adjust to a slower pace, but I am making progress. This morning, I quilted, had tea, took pictures of the puppy and the kitties. I didn’t grade papers or answer emails, and it was lovely. Ron and I sat down this weekend and made a financial plan that will make it so I can have more mornings like this. Ron is a master of frugality. I swear, sometimes I think he’s Thoreau reincarnated. He reminds me that the most precious thing in the world is time, and, as long as our basic needs and our animals’ needs are met (and we are very fortunate in that ours are), what else do we need? And isn’t that just the truth?

photo credit: Sdf Rahbar, Unsplash