I’m back on the road, baby!
Last month I spent some time in Little Rock, Arkansas, a small enough city that I felt like I saw most or all of it during a six-day work trip. It had the feel of a big city, the grime of one — but the charm of a smaller town, seeing as how I kept seeing the same faces over and over throughout the week.
I had a really great week learning in a professional capacity and having fun in a personal capacity. It is a nice city, full of all the things that make cities familiar. Walking the half mile from my hotel to the conference center was reminiscent of my time in Chicago, in Cincinnati, in London. It felt like home, like I had just returned from a long time away.
While I didn’t do a lot of writing in Little Rock, I did do a lot of thinking. It felt nice to be in a new place, with my little family in tow. It helped me solidify some thoughts about some things I want out of my life: more travel, less stress, more time with my family. I worked on a couple crochet projects and learned more about my field and spent time with folks who know exactly what kinds of challenges I face every day at my job.
Now that I’m home…
One thing that came through clearly at the conference: We need to take more time for ourselves. Make time to be offline. Do other things that aren’t work. I haven’t been doing that a lot lately. It feels like I’ve been going, going, going, and that’s not good for my mental health.
I’m going to take some real time off in January, I think, and settle back into myself.
These blogs are always a testament to the amount of time I spend thinking about how, exactly, to do that. How do I settle back into myself? How do I force myself out of bed to go exercise in the morning? How do I help myself feel more secure in where I am, in the choices I’ve made? How do I let myself be okay with the things I’m doing, and the goals I’m achieving (or not achieving)? I think about all these things for exactly as long as it takes to write this post, and then throw myself back into the humdrum of everyday work.
Seems like I need to carve out some real time to figure things out. Time to make some lists and get back to where I need to be. That’ll be the next post. Stay tuned.
Liz Makes Stuff 