My summer was like a bowl of ripe peaches.  I love peaches more than any fruit.  I love peach pie, peach yogurt, peach anything.  My summer was full of all kinds of peachy goodness. 

 

I taught some super challenging and fun classes at UWB, launched our Pediatric Teaching Clinic, did a few podcasts, ended up being elected to a co-presidency of our state professional organization for midwives, and worked pretty intensively with an awesome faculty team on a new initiative with the UW and a group in Alaska to provide more mental & behavioral health literacy and competency for healthcare providers. 

 

Professionally, it was pretty rockin'.  

 

I also traveled to D.C. and North Carolina with my family, watched my son's 'art life' literally explode, camped in my new tent palace, and competed in three weekend-long tennis tournaments (I even won a mug!).  

 

Personally, it was also pretty dope.  

 

But did you get tired just reading that?  I did.  

 

All that rock n' roll has left me pretty freaking rolled over.  And now with a dumb cough, the one that has faithfully shown up every time I have taken it past the limit.  I could barely keep up with my bowl of ripe peaches!  They 'turned' faster than I could enjoy them.  Truly an embarrassment of riches.  

 

Remember when I told you last year that I was taking a sabbatical, some time to slow down, and pare back?  Well, I did.  And then I really, really, really didn't.  

 

A coach said to us this summer, ''There are winners and there are learners."  This line really nails it all together for me.  I am going to give myself a C- in Resting & Slowing Down.  I don't win or succeed in this subject at all.  (That's kind of the point, right?).  However, I do learn.  

 

I learn a lot about myself every time I try to rest and slow down.  I learned that rest and slowing down is like seasonal sleep; I need it to restore and refuel for the next project(s) just as we need sleep each night to rise up for the next day.  

 

It was actually a forgone conclusion that after my sabbatical-ish, I was going to rise up and come back blazing.  That my creativity and drive would be awakened.  That the blaze would burn hard and bright, and then to embers. And...that I will most certainly need to rest again in due time, just as we need sleep each night.  

 

I also learned that none of this is news.  I already knew all of this, and so do you.  But I had forgotten.  I left it behind.  Just like our kids spend the first few weeks of school and the Fall re-kindling their brains, and remembering what they learned and accomplished last year, so will I. 

 

I will drop off a bit like Fall leaves, go under like the Earth subdued by Winter, and show off some new, shiny life lessons come Spring.  Only to be just peachy next Summer.  

 

I hope your Summer fruit was delicious, that your fields are clearing, and that you are resting up for some growing this year.  

 

Take care, Sunita 

 

#growthtakesrest #justpeachy #sabbaticalish