It has been almost two weeks since I published anything here, and I have been feeling guilty about that. I keep thinking I should have something ready by now, but the last two weeks have just been very full.
School started, and about a week later the little germ buggies started making their rounds. My seven-year-old was coughing at night, my three-year-old wasn’t feeling great, and my son and I started Aikido together. Labor Day weekend came and we basically just stayed home, which honestly was probably what everybody needed.
At the same time, I have been trying to figure out what comes next for me. I’ve been working on the St. George story, thinking about work, keeping up with the house, getting groceries, cooking—just all the normal things. None of it sounds like very much on its own, but somehow you look up and the three hours you thought you had are gone.
I am realizing that three hours is not actually that much time. It sounds like a nice open stretch until you put real life into it.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, though, I finally took my paddle board out.
I had wanted to do it for a while. I had the board. I had the pump. I had everything I needed. But every time I thought about going, it became this whole thing in my head. I have to get it out. I have to inflate it. I have to carry it down to the water. Then I have to get it back out, deflate it, and put everything away again. Ugh.
Honestly, I was making myself tired before I even left the house.
Then I finally went. And the ridiculous part is that it took maybe five or ten minutes to get from the car to the water. Granted, I parked very close to the water. But still. It was nowhere near the production I had turned it into.
I wasn’t out there all day. It wasn’t some grand day away. I was only on the water for a short amount of time, and then I had to pack it all back up and go home.
But I did it. I got on the water. And it was worth it.
I think that is what I keep coming back to: try it once.
Not “commit to a new hobby.” Not “now you have to do this every week.” Not even “do it well.” Just try it once.
If it doesn’t work, and it really is too much or too hard right now, then you know for next time. That is useful too. But maybe it isn’t. Maybe the whole terrible setup in your head is actually ten minutes, and after those ten minutes you are sitting on the water wondering why you waited so long.
I don’t think the answer to a full life is squeezing more things into every available minute. I am actually trying to be more honest with myself about how little time I have some days. But I also don’t want the things I want for myself to always be the first things that disappear.
So this is the reminder I needed this week, and maybe you need it too: you do not have to decide forever. You do not have to make it into a project. Just give yourself the moment and see.
Even if you are only out on the water for a little while, it can still be worth it.
…Which brings me to Your moment for today: (See moment card below!)
Let me know how it goes!
XO,
Gloria
