My mind is blown that I’ve neglected this site for so long. My life has taken a completely different trajectory since my last post almost two years ago.

I resigned from my job.

There were several contributing factors, but the toll the job was taking on my health was something that my husband and I could no longer ignore.

It’s been… strange.

I’ve always been someone who correlated success with accomplishments. If I wasn’t completing a project, going after that next promotion, beating my latest PR, I felt.. less than. My self-worth was knotted in what I could accomplish on a daily basis.

What I finally came to realize was killing myself for the job wasn’t helping me or my family.

So, I resigned.

Within the first few months of “retirement” I burnt myself out on home projects that had been put on the back burner. I struggled with my place in the world. I took my family members’ line of questioning, “what did you do today” as a personal attack. What if I didn’t do anything? Am I less of a person for it?

I am slowly getting to the point where I can just… be. I still have my projects, but I am trying really hard to acknowledge my limits and give myself a pass at being “lazy” every once and a while.

I’m trying really, really hard not to correlate rest with laziness. Baby steps.

I’ve also been attempting to write daily. I really do love creating stories and wordsmithing. Writing has always been therapeutic and I need to get back into it. More often than not, however, my perimenopausal brain will put me in a trance. I will find myself staring at the blinking cursor for what feels like hours, only to shut down the computer without a single word written.

What better way to sharpen the sword than to dust off ViCARIously Speaking?

I’m not going to say, “I’m back”. I’m not going to make any promises like last time. My hope is the occasional post and connection with the Blogger World will help the words flow a little more freely.

Maybe eventually posts can turn into pages. Maybe even those pages into chapters, and chapters into…. well, the next chapter of my life.

🙂 Cari

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A few recommendations for your reading pleasure this morning..

• I encourage you to stop by The Confusing Middle and give The Letter from Jessica Claus a read. Such an adorable, Christmas-themed post which brought tears to my eyes!

• Be Inspired !! ‘s, The Night My Pasta Saved Me, has some great ideas for adding hummus and carrots <who knew> into pasta sauces. I can’t wait to try a few of the mouth-watering recipes!

• I’ve missed MyGenXPlaylist’s ability to intertwine Generation X music with daily life. My Gen X Playlist: Dreams – The Cranberries is such a relatable post. The choice of your morning coffee mug really can set the mood for the day!