Just Breathe

So now, in sunny Australia, we are having our summer holidays.  I have to tell you, I truly love January.  Christmas and New Year rush is over, and we have nearly a whole month where the pace slows, the pressures of work and school disappear, the weather is generally gorgeous....  and I can finally breathe. 

There have been a few really significant moments of clarity in my otherwise muddled and messy life.  I think it's safe to say that all of these moments followed a really significant amount of "breathing space", of one kind or another.  In 2010, 6 months or more of being unwell and out of work turned out to be the greatest gift I could receive.  I found myself again (not that I was looking - I didn't even realise I'd lost me, I'd been so busy!). And other really important realisations - and I mean realisations of the mind-blowing, paradigm altering, life-changing kind - all seem to have arrived after a period of quietness and inactivity.

I've just had almost three weeks of beautiful, soul-restoring space.  In fact, New Year's Day found me abandoning myself to the quietness of nature on a Nelson Bay beach, with my dear friends Ginny and Russ.  It was the sort of restful, almost meditative day, that just seems to embalm you in peace (thanks, guys!) and I am claiming that kind of restfulness as my theme for 2012.  Last week, the kids and I were able to get away camping along with the wonderful Jacobs family.  It was only three days, but it was the most beautiful, isolated place.  No phone or internet (no reception).  All we did was sit by the river, dip in the river, fish in the river, eat by the river, bathe in the river....  I brought the peacefulness of that river back home with me. 

My moment of clarity?  Nothing that will shake the earth and rock all your boats.  I reached the end of last year tired, and torn in a few different directions.  Deliberately taking time out has helped me regain my balance.  Some pressures I'd taken on board, I'm just letting go.  I didn't think I was overworked... but I'd become overbusy.  And I was numbing myself with too much running around, too much internet, and wayyyy too much vino.  I'm not letting that happen again.

So life is slowly getting back to normal.  We have a couple more weeks of holidays left, but preparations for school have started, and I'm getting back to my garden and the ongoing renovations.  But I'm doing it peacefully.  Keeping my balance.  And if things get too hectic and muddled again??  Well that beautiful river is always waiting!!