Hello, again. It’s been a while (I think I hear a song in there!). As many of you know, my previous blog went “quiet” for quite some time.
My husband was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2007 and went through many treatments, tests, and trials over the next 10 ½ years. During those first few years, the blog was my haven – a chance to write about words that helped me stay upbeat and encouraging…and encouraged. Somewhere near the end of 2013, my husband’s issues became increasingly serious and the time required to write a blog post became an issue. What was once a haven, my blog posts, was now a chore. And I never want something to be a chore that has the intended purpose of encouraging people!
That’s where today’s word comes in – respite. I was going to use hiatus as the title of this post, which basically just means a pause or gap. Well, that’s certainly true – 5+ years could be called a pause or a gap 😊. But the word respite expresses that gap more fully – “a period of rest or relief from something difficult.” Writing has never been difficult for me but writing in an uplifting way during an extremely discouraging time in my own life was, indeed, difficult. It sapped my energy, energy I sorely needed to tend to my husband. Thankfully, conducting workshops and webinars during that time became my own lifeline, allowing me to tune in to what you needed and forget the scary stuff he and I were going through. But something had to give and that something was blog posts. I always knew I would be back!
If you’ve ever been to my programs or attended any of my webinars, you know that my focus is to encourage those who attend – encourage them to look at the positive, encourage them to be lifelong learners, encourage them to use the knowledge they are gaining, and encourage them to live their best lives.
And that brings us to a new year – 2019. My husband passed away in 2017 and I have spent a year and a half finding my footing in a life I never imagined – as a widow. I can’t say I’m quite there yet, but the respite that I allowed myself has brought me a long way to settling into this new reality. I am so thankful I allowed myself not to feel guilty for not posting. The respite truly was the rest I needed.
I’m ready to start this blog – and be your encourager – “afresh and anew” as the saying goes. So, my question for you is… is there anything in your life that might require a respite at this stage? Is there anything you are doing out of guilt or someone else’s expectations that simply isn’t feeding your soul like it should? Certainly, we must do things at our jobs that may not exactly feed our souls…and we have obligations to family and friends that we would never want to let slide. But perhaps there are other things that you’ve been doing because…well, you’ve just been doing them. If you are excited by those things keep at it! If, however, they drag you down and make you feel like they just add another chore to your to-do list, maybe it’s time you step back and see if that’s a chore you really want to invest time and energy into.
As part of my resurrected blog process, my plan is to post about once a month – sometimes more often if things pop into my mind that I think you’d find helpful. Sometimes maybe not quite that often if I am wonderfully busy conducting workshops and webinars. Either way, you’ll be “seeing” a lot of me!
And as you know if you’ve ever attended any of my programs, face-to-face or online, I’m always here to listen or give feedback if you think that might help you flesh things out a bit. Just drop me an email at lfbruno@cfl.rr.com – I’d love to hear from you!
