Dear writers,

I hope you’re eating and keeping well this holiday weekend. My wife and I are just coming out of three weeks of battling colds and in my wife’s case, a nasty sinus infection. We’ve been trying to take it easy (thus the offbeat email schedule of late) but you know how the panic starts to set in when your to do lists just keep growing. Ugh.

As we sat last night contemplating the chaos that visiting children and partners would bring, we realized we didn’t have the energy to do the usual massive house clean and baking frenzy we usually do. We were wondering what to do when it eventually dawned on us that this is a time to give ourselves some grace. We’re sick. We’re tired. Our kids love us and don’t care if the house is spotless or there’s just one kind of pie instead of two. We needed to take a moment to remember what was important and then give ourselves permission to let everything else go.

Is there something you need to give yourself the grace to let go?

So many of us spend so much of our time stacking up productive accomplishments it can be easy to lose sight of ourselves. We can forget that we need to rest and recharge. We can forget that only a few things in life are truly important. We can start to treat ourselves like a machine whose only value is how much it gets done.

As we roll into the heart of the holiday season, I encourage you to grab a coffee or make yourself some tea, and then take a few minutes to reflect on whether you’ve been carrying something (or multiple somethings) that are dragging you down instead of helping you get where you want to go.

If you discover you’re carrying some baggage, this is a great time of year to think about how to let it go and to identify the few things that are important enough to deserve your time and attention.

Let me know if you’re carrying something it’s time to let go…