Yes, it's Easter Sunday and I just had the last week off.
Yes, I just went on an amazing vacation with my family to somewhere warm.
Yes, I understand that most people have to work through the summer.
I know all of these things are true but my cabin fever gets a little crazy once sunny spring days appear in Minnesota. I long to get out in my garden and put in my plants that will inevitably be attacked by some crazy form of Creeping Jenny, insects, and/or fungus. I will spend hours upon hours working to save the plants only to have a small to moderate amount of produce live through the ordeal. I dream of selling my produce at the farmers market but I will end up with enough to feed my family and give to friends and have nothing to sell anyway.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT!
Why? Because even though I love my job as a school nurse I don't really like getting up early. Even though I feel extremely useful after helping a student with a deadly diabetic low or broken arm, I am exhausted from stress of quick thinking and being the one with answers.
Everyone needs time to rest and rejuvenate. My kids need it after doing the work of school, extracurriculars, and busy weekends, and my husband needs it too (although he seems to need it less often than me) after weeks and weeks of clinical trials and combing through data.
There is a mentality in the working world that we need to be martyrs. That we are better or harder workers if we go in to work when we aren't feeling well. (Please don't do this. You are actually compounding the problem by bringing your illness to work with you.) That we shouldn't take time off for appointments our kids need for mental health, or even more often, appointments that we need for ourselves.
Let's be honest. None of us are better off making a few more bucks to spend on junk, spending less time at home with our families, or juggling the insanely busy schedules that we allow to capture us so that we aren't our best at any of the things we are doing. Time suckers or life suckers can be at home or church or out in the community. They are anywhere else that we allow circumstances and work to take up our time and mental energy.
Can gardening do this too? Maybe for you but not for me. Each of us is different. Figure out what is sucking the life out of you, how to take a vacation from it, and do it without any guilt. You might even be more productive for it, but productivity isn't what life is about. It's about living.
