I don’t know about you, but pre-pandemic me had a lot going on.
So many plans, a humming schedule, countless balls in the air.
It felt good, or at least normal, at the time. But now? I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
While I don’t know any parent who would describe the past year and a half as easy or chill, the world shutting down made a lot of us aware of how often we’d been in constant motion. Being at home forced us to think about how fast we’d been moving — and whether we actually liked that pace.
For months, I thought about what things I truly wanted back in my life when the world opened back up, and what I promised I wouldn’t let back in. Now that the time suddenly seems to be here, I’m finding it trickier than I expected to not pack our schedule up.
I’m noticing that old overwhelmed feeling creeping back. But summer is too good to make it a scramble!
So I’m staying firm in my desire to keep things simple. To choose rest, and less, and open-endedness. To allow for space, and to give myself the freedom to do things on a whim — or maybe nothing at all.
Here’s to letting ease, and fun, lead the way this month!
– Katie Vaughn
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.