First things first – thank you to everyone that responded to my three things* post last week. Your comments, shares and likes were so inspiring. I was grinning ear to ear all week, feeling like I’m on to something and excited about where to go from here. Even if I don’t make the final cut for the Babble Top 100 Blogs of 2013. I feel like I’ve gotten some great exposure. I owe you. Big time.
And coming off of last week, I am accepting that some days are just meant to be hooky days. I wrote two and a half blog posts this morning, and I didn’t like a single word. And in my efforts to keep it real, I’m letting you know that this blog and my writing doesn’t just effortlessly flow. In fact, I took a few days off and now I’m feeling pretty darn rusty.
On my way home from dropping off guests at the airport, I was driving through Fairmount Park and decided to head up to a scenic overlook of Philadelphia. It’s an incredible day here and I just wanted to see something beautiful and be quiet and be by myself. And that’s when I made my decision.
Here are three things about when to play hooky:
1. When everything annoys you. Some days I just want to yell at everyone in the world Enough Already! So when my efforts at blogging became a rant about all the things I’m sick and tired of hearing about (Miley Cyrus, Halloween costumes gone awry to name a few), I knew I needed to step away and take the time to find the sparkle.
2. When you’ve had house guests for a week. I love hosting, and I love having the room to have guests come and stay. But there comes a point where everything is just enough out of order that it starts to affect me. I need to reset. My household. My work. Myself. And sometimes that reset is less about getting organized and dealing with the laundry and getting back to work as it is about giving myself time to transition.
3. When you’re going through the motions. The problem with my writing this morning was I was working towards a schedule instead of towards an idea. I was writing because I always try to post on Monday so an email can go out Tuesday morning. While deadlines and organization are good because they keep me moving forward, they don’t work when they become an obligation. The lack of inspiration is transparent. And for me that means, don’t post just to post.
So am I really playing hooky if I’m still writing this? Great question. I have no idea.
But I did turn a negative into a positive. Maybe that sparkle isn’t as far away as I thought.
Take your hooky days people. Give yourself the time and the space. I’m taking mine right now.
*It’s never too late to help out. See the three things you can do for me here.
Love the picture – looks gorgeous! And want to say I’m totally impressed by your regular writing/posting – I’m always excited to see a new post in my inbox. I’ve been enjoying getting to know you better through your writing, and it IS fun to read, to boot. So much of what you write makes me “I know, right?” or “Totes what I would say.” Ok maybe I don’t really say “totes,” or at least not out loud. But you get the picture.
Thanks Meg. I am glad you’re enjoying reading. I’m enjoying writing. I had to read the totes thing about five times before I got it. I was like totes? What the heck is she talking about? But now I got it. Totes.
Great shot of Philly!
That’s across from the Belmont Mansion…Grace Ann showed me that little spot and I love it.