Take the Time, You Matter More

Hard work, even when you drive the vision, timeline, and process requires recovery. Your worth is not dependent on being always on.

If my muscles were verbal, they would unleash a tempest of profanity. Because every individual fiber of every single muscle ache to the heavens. Ibuprofen is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine and even my fitness tracker is telling me that recovery requires rest days and to give my body a break.

Yes, I agree with the helpful, little health-conscious tracker upon my wrist.

How did I get to this point? I had a vision. Well, technically I still do and it is a work in progress. My vision was to triple the size of our vegetable garden which also required the complete dismantling of our current set-up. Great progress was made and hats off to my lovely husband who was right there in the trenches beside me.

Between lugging lumber and stone corners back and forth, pulling apart and disposing of older materials, shoveling and moving dirt, and constructing new raised beds—we have been busy bees. Our efforts are immensely rewarding and the excitement of what is to come propels us forward.

But to be fair, it comes with a cost. Pain, down time, and a reliance on take out because the mere thought of cooking makes going without a far more appealing prospect.

Hard work, even when you drive the vision, timeline, and process requires recovery. In fact, rest needs to be a part of the process and remains true whether the work is mental or physical.

What do we risk if recovery is sidelined or avoided all together? Injury, strain, decreased performance, fatigue, and even a weakened immune system. We may save a day that then throws us back a week or more. The easiest lies to believe are the ones we tell ourselves, the ones saying we can power through, that we just need to put our head down and focus, that rest is for the weary, or that we will rest on a particular day that somehow never materializes.

Your worth is not dependent on being always on.

Let me repeat that sentence again. Your worth is not dependent on being always on. To be the best version of ourselves, we must rest. Because we all have individual needs, what rest looks like and how long it takes vary. Your rest may be an afternoon or a day, but another’s may be a week or more. You may need alone time while others need companionship.

Take the time.

Your goals matter. Your vision matters. You matter more.

And in that spirit, the extent of my efforts today will be to pick up the bare minimum from the grocery store. Everything else can wait until I am ready to seize the day. And I will. Just not this day.