If the song from the 1988 Kit Kat commercial isn’t running through your head after reading this blog title, click on the picture below and it will be.
I took a much needed break last night and read a novel until way past my bed time (which isn’t as late as it used to be).
Being a compulsive, all-or-nothing person, I run as hard and fast as I can. When I get tired, I want to quit.
For good.
Never to do the thing again.
Last night I felt that way about this blog. Life has worn me out. But I took a break and here’s a blog about breaks. . . Because that’s how my mind works.
Some things have their own natural breaks, like school and novel writing. Other things go on and on. I have to be smart enough to rest when I need it.
Last summer my husband, my daughter, and I hiked Grays and Torreys Peaks. Two fourteers in one day (fourteen thousand foot mountains, for you non-Coloradans). Ambitious, but doable.
After two hours of hiking uphill, we could see both peaks. So far away. The people on top were smaller than ants. On some fourteeners, I can’t see how far away the peak is and imagine it is around the next corner, pushing through until I get there. Not Grays and Torreys. We hadn’t even begun the ascent.
My legs had turned to jello and I sat on a boulder, unable to go on. “I can’t do it,” I said. “I’ll go back to the car and wait for you.”
“You can do it, Mom. At least do the first peak.”
So, I tried.
I stood up and walked a little farther. Each time I got jello legs, I stopped. I sucked in air and the oxygen made its way to my leg muscles and did whatever it does there. And eventually, I reached the top of both peaks.
I’ll admit to waiting at the trail head for my husband and daughter to fetch the car afterward. But I climbed both peaks.
My daughter understands the value of a break.
On her wedding day, we took outdoor pictures before the ceremony. Then she slipped into the bride’s room while the guests arrived.
When I peeked in the room to make sure she was ready, her dress sat in a pile on the floor, with a hole in the middle awaiting her return. She sat to the side in a dressing gown, surrounded by bridesmaids, drinking a bottle of sparkling water. “I’m taking a break.”
Good thing it was only a break. The groom would have been disappointed if she’d decided she was too tired to go on.
As for me, in the chaos of transition – moving, weddings, writing, and etc. I’ll try to remember to take a break when I need it, the theme song to the Kit Kat commercial playing in my head all the while.
No guilt.
Read that novel all night.
Watch stand-up comedy instead of mowing the lawn.
Binge watch a new favorite series.
Never give up. Never surrender. But take breaks as needed.