Rest and Refocus

Mi Elenita,

I see you on the baby monitor, still asleep and with a hand near Bunny Boo. You will probably reach for him once you wake up as you wait for us to come get you. Many people tell me how lucky I am to have a baby who waits there, awake, chilling, and not demanding attention immediately. I think of that idea of just being with yourself and how hard it is for many of us today. So, when you wake up in the morning, I let you lay there for as long as I can.

I’ve been thinking about rest lately—not the kind of rest one needs after a long week or a tiring meal prep Sunday, but the type of rest that can quickly reset and help refocus one’s attention. That is the rest I don’t see on my calendar when I open it this morning. I’ve been too eager to say Yes to many tasks and people, and even though I book time on that same calendar to get that done, I am filling every time gap I find.

Yesterday, for example, I went from a meeting with an admin to working on a document, to a meeting with 2nd grade, to a meeting with Amy, and then ran to a meeting with a preschool team until it was time to pick Elena up. Each meeting had something significant for me to reflect on or ideas to write down, but because I said Yes to each of those, I left no time in between to refocus.

When I started this job, I knew this would be an issue, so I planned ahead and reserved the first and last 30 minutes of my day for myself, and even included a 30-minute block for lunch that I’m glad to say I’m not skipping. But the AM and PM “rest and think” blocks have since mostly disappeared when actually, I should be adding an extra one during the day.

You see, Elena, I think I need to say yes to that as eagerly as I say yes to everyone else. I ask myself, if I add a daily 30-minute “Rest and Refocus” block to my calendar, will I honor it?

I hope that whenever you ask me that same question, I can say that I did, for the most part, because I wanted to model rest for you.