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Your Permission to Give Yourself a Holiday Break
Trust me: It will all be there when you get back
I have a holiday gift for you, dear reader. I send it from my laptop to yours, with great affection and with heartfelt gratitude for all you have done for your family, your friends, your colleagues, and our society this year. Here it is: permission to take a holiday break. Take a day, a week, or an hour. Take as much as you can get, even if it’s just a moment. It doesn’t need to be to Cabo. Or anywhere Instagrammable. It doesn’t even need to be a trip. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive or extensive. Just take a break. You need it. And you deserve it.
Here is what we are all simply saying too little of right now: this year was awful. The year before that was awful. This long slog hurts. Since the former president’s emergency declaration in March 2020, before we ever imagined we would run through the Greek alphabet for variant names, we have all been a ball of nerves. We have been anxious, fearful, nervous, frustrated, angry, and really fucking annoyed. We have done our best to put a smile on and power through it. To be hopeful. To be patient. To be kind. We have gotten up every day to make the very best of the worst situation our world has seen in a century.
But we’re exhausted. And no amount of Tesla commercials or texts from Bed, Bath and Beyond are going to make us feel better. No new flat screen will do the trick. No Series 7 Apple Watch or iPhone 13 Pro will make us calmer or make it all go away. The ugly truth is that it won’t work. Brands will do their damndest to convince you that the pandemic is over and that it is time to go back to normal and time to go back to your normal holiday spending, but you don’t need to. What do you need is a break. From the texting, the flooded inbox, work, meetings, calls, Zoom, social media, school projects, driving the family around like you’re an Uber, and the pressure of perfectly posed Minted holiday cards. Even from the kids, if somehow you can manage that one.
It’s okay. Step away for a bit.
What I learn every January and then forget by every December is that it will all be there when you get back. Every year, I force myself to get through my list — my Great American To-Do List — before I break for the…
