Last week, my kids were on Fall Break. Since I had some vacation time to use up, I decided to take off work so I could be with them. We didn’t plan a trip, we just decided to have a staycation of sorts. Except this was going to be a Staycation of Productivity! Oh, I could see it clearly…I was going to have five whole days to do the things I normally don’t have time for. I was going to clean out closets and make phone calls and donate clothes and just generally GET! STUFF! DONE! It was going to be magnificent and I was already patting myself on the back for everything that was going to happen.
On day two of my five days of PRODUCTIVITY & ORGANIZATION & EXCELLENCE I heard a knock on the door.
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
Me: Uh…hello?
NCV: Yeah, Hi. Did someone order the Nasty Cold Virus?
Me: No! There must be some mistake!
NCV: *Checks list on clipboard* Nope…I’ve got orders to blow through your family and lay you out flat for the next 72 hours.
Me: But I’ve got things planned! I have a list of things to do! I have to ACCOMPLISH ALL THE THINGS!!
NCV: Sorry Sweetheart. I’m already here. So grab your box of tissues, a blanket, and turn on America’s Funniest Home Videos because we’re gonna get real cozy for the next three days. Now, where’s the remote?
Me: *sneezes* NOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!!!
I had to learn how to let go of my dream of being productive and surrender to sweet siren song of the recliner and hot tea. I didn’t want to spend three days parked in front of the TV, huddled under a blanket but really I just didn’t have the energy to do anything else. When I say this cold laid me out flat, it really did. Well, it mostly laid me out in a semi-reclined position (because of the, you know, recliner) but I just had zero desire to do anything else other than blow my nose and watch AFV with my daughter and eat carbs.
I finally just had to accept that the best thing I could do was rest. And so I did. I rested, I napped, I slept late in the morning, and the only productive thing I did all weekend was to paint my nails because even though my hair said “sick day” I at least wanted my nails to say “Fabulous“.
I still feel bad that I didn’t get to take care of all the things I wanted to over the weekend, but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for me. It took me awhile to really get in the groove of being sick because I think I place a fair amount of weight on being productive. I often feel like I only have two days to play catch-up since I work outside the home 5 days a week, so having 5 days off meant that I “should” use that time to get things done and that I “need” to NOT WASTE IT. I think this illness was Life’s way of saying “Hey Jill, guess what? You’re “shoulding” all over yourself. How about you stop that and relaaaaaaaaaax?”
So I did. I let go of the need to do stuff and I embraced the desire to just be, even if my “just be”state involved a whole box of tissues and Nyquil and my blankie. All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the weekend, and I learned to embrace Plan B when Life laughs at my Plan A.
Bravo, Jill. Congratulations on not beating yourself up over the uncontrollable. Hope you feel better soon
Thanks Mary!
Too bad you got sick, but it’s kinda nice that you got to rest and veg without work guilt! Hope you are feeling better soon.
Oh the work-guilt, yes. That was one thing I was thankful for – that it happened over the weekend and I could just REST and not worry about missing work. My boss would have been very understanding if I had missed work, but still…
You are a good story-teller! I wish you could have veg’d without being sick, but it sounds like you were able to sort of enjoy yourself.
Yeah, sort of. I finally stepped away from the TV and read my book for a while, so that was good. 🙂
Ugh! I HATE getting sick…especially when I have things planned. But, you’re right, sometimes just relaxing is what we really need!