The Importance of Taking Time Off.

I am smack in the middle of writing two books and a holiday is in between me and the finish. So where am I? I’m not in my writing hole. I’m not on my computer. I’m not editing, marketing, or talking about business.

I’m in the kitchen (not a place I am particularly fond of) with some of my favorite people cooking and joking, laughing and playing. I even got dressed today!

Sometimes, because I tend to zone out or have tunnel vision and put way too much on my schedule, I forget what a blessing it is to be around people who I love, doing mundane things like cooking and cleaning. I forget how good it makes me feel to dress up and not be in my standard, and stereotypical, (sorry everyone in the business) pj’s.

I forget to stop and smell the cut grass, listen to the crickets, and look up at the stars instead of down at a keyboard. It’s not that I don’t love the worlds I create, but the one I live in is pretty amazing too. Thankfully, I have kids who stop me and give me a dose of reality. They remind me when I don’t stop at the time I promised, if I’ve worked so hard I may have forgotten to shower (happens more than I am willing to admit) and that the human body needs sunlight and fresh air at some point within a seven day span.

I hate to sound preachy and I’m not all about telling someone what to do, but I will say that the moments I have with my babies and my muse are some of my most precious things. I hold them to me when the world is not a nice place, when I’m not meeting deadlines or that one star review is so brutal I think I may never write again. They help inspire my made up world. In that world they live like an all knowing entity, one who shows up in the strength of a heroine, the love between the lead characters, the quirky nuttiness between friends and the love it takes to fashion something from nothing. 

If I didn’t take the time to see and feel all that, I wouldn’t be able to create all that I do. For me, I’ll take the extra time to stop and read that bed time story, smell that rose, and spend that time!

Stories wait, life doesn’t.

Jisa <3

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