A Spring Break

The girls are on Spring Break. Tomorrow all of us will head to South Carolina for a week away. It will be a good week. A week of family, of food, of fun, of frolic. A week of focus. Focus on my three little girls. My babes. I am on Spring Break, too, I've decided. Tomorrow I will press pause on this place. I will press pause for weeks, or maybe months. They will be good, gritty weeks or months. Weeks or months of focus. Focus on a story I've been writing - and artfully avoiding - for years now. A story I love that I've shoved aside for too long now. My novel.

After a lot of thought, I've decided that in this world of multitasking, this world in which so many of us (myself very much included) subscribe to the modern paradigm of the Scattered Self, I must give myself permission to focus. And to finish.

Time is not unlimited. I know this. I know this too well. Today is Dad's birthday. He would have been 71. And if he were here, we Donnelley girls would have surrounded him and celebrated with a mocha cake. Dad loved a good mocha cake. But he is not here and there is no cake. He is fishing in distant waters, hovering over my shoulder with his impish grin and his toothbrush mustache and his most pressing message: Do what matters.

What matters to me, at this moment, is that I sink, and deeply, into my role as a mother of three small children, girls who are silly and smart and the most fun. What matters to me, at this moment, is that I sink, and deeply, into my role as the creator of three grown characters, women who are brilliantly lost in this beautiful world.

And so. For the next bit of time, I will be away from here. I may or may not pop on and update you on my progress. I haven't decided. We'll see. For the most part though, I will be away.

Focused.

Finishing.

Writing.

Raising.

Wish me luck. Please wish me luck. Because, honestly, I will need it. Depriving myself of this cozy corner and all of you will take discipline. But coming back, and full-throttle, to this place, this place I adore, will be the ultimate prize. And what a wonderful prize it will be.

{I know myself and I will not be able to unplug completely. I will continue to share pictures and musings on Facebook and Instagram so feel free to follow along there.}

♥

Do you sanction my self-imposed Spring Break? What is most important to you right now? Are you embracing or avoiding this thing, or these things? Are you constantly multitasking/scattered?