So, this is my first blog post for a month, and I love blogging, so why haven't I been doing it? Busy. I had to dust my piano the other day - why hadn't I been playing it? Busy. My PhD proposal is sitting there beckoning me towards it, but I can't seem to find a stretch of time long enough to do it justice. Why? Busy.
Sometimes we get so sucked into servicing the everyday demands placed before us, replying to emails, tweets, knocks on the office door etc., that we end up on a rollercoaster that is just going round and round the same track. The initial adrenaline soon wears off and we just become sick and tired. That's what has happened to me; I've become sick (physically) and tired (emotionally), to the point where I'm desperate for a little Christmas respite. Not just because it's a break - but more particularly because it's the only break where you know no-one else is going to be stacking up the work for your return.
This is a classic of the self-help book genre, it's a 'don't sweat the small stuff' and a '7 habits' lesson - goodness, it's a lesson the ancient philosophers could have taught us. Yes, there is beauty in the small stuff, but if you let it prevent you from doing the big stuff, you're never going to get off that rollercoaster (the ancients are, of course, unlikely to have mentioned a rollercoaster - they were good engineers, but I don't think they'd progressed to pointless thrill-seeking at £30 a pop).
So, for two weeks this Christmas, I'm banning busy, getting off the rollercoaster, and taking a train somewhere instead. Destination? Who knows.
