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What to Do When You’re Sick and Tired of Everything — Including Yourself
The rejuvenating power of feeling like a visitor
Rejuvenation. That’s what a friend recently told me she needed. She’d written a book that was published in October, right before the election, but she’d felt too exhausted to publicize it. Not that it would have mattered anyway. The world was shouty and stressed.
Now, with vaccines and tulips all around us, she was still dragging herself from masked grocery store visits to the occasional school pickup (when school wasn’t closed because of Covid.) “What can rejuvenate me?” she asked. We listed the obvious options for middle-aged women in Brooklyn: yoga, wine, essential oils, hanging out in someone’s backyard for an evening, away from our families. None of it sounded sufficient.
When I brought up our conversation with my younger colleagues, they told me that the word rejuvenation made them think of plastic surgery, fillers, and dermabrasion. Ok, so never mind the word, but what was the answer?
I found out during spring break when my husband, two kids, and dog spent a long weekend in Rhode Island. The salty scent of the ocean, wandering through decrepit family graveyards from the 1700s, and not cleaning out the dishwasher every morning was a welcome gentle jolt: I…
