Ever have a day where you just need to get away?  You’ve had enough peopling and want to be alone?  Then, if you’re like me, you think of all the stuff that needs to get done and you start feeling guilt for taking time for yourself instead of handling things on your list for others.  That was me today.  I had just had enough.  Nothing specific really happened, it was just enough.  I had been busy for the past two+ weeks straight.  I decided I would take Monday off.  Then I scheduled some appointments.  Then some more.  Then I had paperwork to do.  I ended up leaving the office at 7 pm.  What a day off huh?  So I decided I really needed a break Tuesday.  Then I looked at my calendar and already had several appointments and meetings scheduled.  So much for taking this day off.  The funny thing is though, one of the appointments was with leadership at our company and the topic of rest came up.  Being in real estate, we don’t often get weekends off.  You have to put off-time on your calendar or you will just continually schedule things like I did.  Over time, that wears you down.  Between working and being busy umpteen days straight and still not getting much sleep(read here for more on that), I was worn slap out.

I was sitting at my desk trying to stay awake and stay focused when I just decided that’s
enough for today.  All urgent tasks are done, the rest can wait until tomorrow I’m leaving.  So at 2:30 I turned the light off, shut the door, and walked out.  That moment I felt such relief instantly.  I knew when I got to my car that I had made the right choice.  On the way home, I decided I would pick up my dog and we would go to the woods for a walk.  Between the rain and my busy schedule, he wasn’t getting much free time to unload energy.  And if you know anything about dogs like him, they have tons of energy and will release it one way or another. So I picked him up and we were on our way.  There is no phone service where we were at and I never so much as heard a vehicle.  I was enjoying the rejuvenating silence and Axel was dragging up every stick and tree limb he could fit his teeth around. We were both now having a good day. Unfortunately all the rain came back.  It didn’t seem to bother Ax as much as it did me.  I started making my way back to the car and he tried to bring as many sticks as he could.

It was only about 5:00 by now so I decided to take some back roads instead of the main highways.  If you follow me on social media, you know I love dirt roads.  And this new to me car hasn’t been off the pavement yet.  So we left the highway and put our tires in dirt.  This was a good dirt road, mostly gavel, nothing like the one I almost got stuck on a couple months ago.  With all the rain recently there were some slick spots and I was forced to test the 4 wheel drive function a time or two (it worked).  Several miles later we were back on asphalt.  Dirt roads just don’t go as far as they used to it seems.

Back on the highway, I decided we would ride by the camp while I write some and Axel gets to play in the rain again.  So here I am, sitting on the porch listening to the rain play music on this tin roof while Axel is having the time of his life in the rain.  I believe this is the first time here that he didn’t even get in the lake yet he’ll still be just as wet on the way home.  As it gets darker and darker and the rain is getting harder and harder its hard to explain the healing power of nature.  Its definitely not quiet as the rain is pounding the roof now and flashes of lightning are followed by thunder, but it is relaxing.  And relaxing is exactly what I needed today.