Every time I go on a trip, I feel a bit like the Looney Toons Tasmanian Devil, spinning wildly all over the house, kicking up dust as I madly try to tie up loose ends before I leave.

Every time, I am confronted with the reality that the to-do list that I thought was totally reasonable is actually superhuman, and alas, I am (still) merely human.

Every time, I am forced to do a sort of “to-do list triage,” dropping balls that aren’t absolutely essential in order to get to the stuff that is.

Today I leave for a grand East Coast adventure, and I’m forced to admit that nothing has changed. The great plans to preschedule blog posts and newsletters, and to create and preschedule daily artquotes for the two weeks while I’m away are simply not going to happen.

This is where I get to practice my Golden Formula: Self-awareness + self-compassion = the key to everything good.

Trying to do everything on my superhuman to-do list stresses me the heck out. Trying to squeeze in work while I’m on my vacation and want to be connecting with people I care about stresses me out, too.

So I acknowledge that it’s time to let go. The world will not end if I post nothing for a couple of weeks. And my two weeks away will be a lot more fun and less stressful if I let it be the vacation I planned, and don’t try to squeeze in work.

Letting go is hard for me. I hate letting go. But what I notice is that when I do, not only does life go on, but often it gets noticeably gentler, too.

And gentleness is a good thing for me to cultivate — in my life, and toward myself.

I suspect I’m not the only one who could benefit from practicing gentleness and letting go. (Hint, hint…)

Have a great couple of weeks!

PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

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