A Day Off

Shorties – Part One

My blog posts to date have been chapter length, about a ten minute read. Lately I have been blessed by an exciting amount of gigs and time is a but more limited than usual but I couldn’t bear not writing to you so here’s a quick read on what I have been thinking about this week: taking a day.

Lately I have not been taking a day off a week, let alone a weekend. I have done some work every day. Now (as you know by now) I am very protective of my sleep, and my yoga, and my walks so it is not like I haven’t been taking care of myself. However, regardless of my daily self care, not taking a day or two to myself started to take a toll on me. More on the emotional and mental exhaustion side of things, rather than the physical. So thankfully I did the smart thing and took a day off yesterday. It was awesome. So Completely Wonderful.

Taking this day and seeing the positive impact on both my creativity and my mental and emotional health definitely gave me food for thought. Why was I not doing this every week? Why was I so resistant?

I have a number of friends in the industry and family members who take a day away from work as part of the practice of their belief system. I have never questioned this, and completely respect their observance. A number of times I have even been downright jealous, which is hilarious because what is stopping me from doing the very same thing? Just me. And…..

Fear, my friends. That is what is stopping me. It is so hard when you are freelance to give yourself permission to take that time. To have the confidence that 24 hours away from the studio will not destroy your career. (Btw when you type those words out in black and white it is clear how ridiculous it is to think that). And when you don’t have a religious system or some other positive thing like quality time with your children to make you block out that day, then you just….keep…..working.

A friend of mine had a car accident this week. She’s OK, thankfully, but she when we were texting the following day she wrote “the things we get upset about….it’s all nonsense.” I really appreciated her statement. I don’t want an accident or some other crisis to remind me of things that are important and one of those things is stepping away from work and having quality time with yourself, and your loved ones. Hanging with friends. Doing something different. Giving your brain a moment to recover and reboot.

That’s all I got for now, along with the exciting news about a new concert series happening here in LA which I am thrilled to be a part of: Chamber House LA. On Sunday June 6 we will be having a house concert featuring five string quartet pieces performed by KROMA Quartet. Composers involved are organizers Dabney Morris and Jeremy Bullock, along with Shruti Kumar, Ariel Marx and me. I am so excited to share my work with you: We Are Machine. A piece about a machine that loves what it does. Hope to see you there!