I wrote to someone the other day that breaks are my new travel. Travel and specifically international travel is a passion I haven’t been able to pursue for all the obvious reasons. In the coming weeks I’ll get back on a plane again, though I will be staying inside the US borders—for now.
There’ve been some changes in my life lately, some welcome and some not, but all of them have more forward momentum than I can contain. Things just are and some of those things you have to accept if you want to keep moving in the right direction. I’m fortunate that I don’t generally get overwhelmed (and hopefully this won’t jinx it); even in intense times part of me watches and waits and chooses as soon as I perceive an opportunity for choice.
Few things strengthen that ability more than a break. A break from writing, a break for walking, a break from old habits and perspectives that would otherwise keep everything on repeat. And I don’t know about you, but monotony is a circle of hell as far as I’m concerned.
Stability, and the safety it’s often trying to mimic, lies in the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, not in keeping everything as it was; it’s never quite ‘is’ if you do.
Just like in a story, a break (read: section breaks) provides an opportunity to reset and refocus on only what’s most important for the protagonist’s journey. We’re all protagonists. We’re also fortunate enough to decide what constitutes a section, may be not every one but enough.
Tenea D. Johnson
7.9.21
