Hey friends,

My apologies for not posting last weekend. I just got back from a trip to Vegas and the days prior were spent packing for the trip and getting other work stuff done in preparation.

Unfortunately, this was the one thing that I couldn’t manage to get done, which left me with a nagging feeling of guilt.

I know that if I miss a week here and there, no one on this platform is going to throw stones at me. Thank you for that. : )

However, when I left my job in June to be self-employed full time, one of the promises I made to myself was that I was going to remain consistent with this blog.

So far, I feel I’ve done a pretty good job, but as the months ware on, the free feeling of nothing that I felt so acutely during the summer months has evaporated as I have started to build out my writer life.

Writers Can’t Possibly Have That Much to Do…

You’d be surprised! I sure know I was.

Aside from revising/editing my novel, I’ve been posting to my author/bookstagram account, contributing daily to my Substack as part of my 100 Days Left of 2024 Challenge, attending pitch conferences, and working on a new novel…all while coming up with content for my weekly Bookish Classroom Substack, and when time allows, actually posting to my TpT store.

All of it has been incredibly fulfilling in a way that makes me excited to get up everyday and work. But with every project I currently have my hands in, it means that sometimes something on my list gets a little less attention.

Unfortunately, this past weekend, it was this blog.

The Guilt, The Guilt, Oh the Guilt…

As I came home from my final errand and closed my suitcase…

After I scheduled out my first 15 days of the 31 Days of Spooky Season Reads series on Substack for while I was away and created the graphics to post on Instagram…

As I wrote the post for my Bookish Classroom blog and copy and pasted the final revised chapter into my completed manuscript…

I had to come to terms with the fact that…this blog was the one that was going to have to suffer this week. And oh the guilt. The guilt was BIG.

There’s something about this blog that feels like my baby, probably because when I was leaving my job in teaching, this is where I started.

And also, knowing that there was one thing on my list I couldn’t get to made me feel a bit like a failure.

You Gotta Let Go

Letting go of the guilt is easier said than done.

But at the end of the day, I (and you) are just one person. And last I checked, the world wasn’t going to end if something on my list didn’t get done.

If I forgot to pack something, there’s always a way to get it.

If the blog didn’t get written for that weekend, it would get written for the following.

We put so much pressure on ourselves to do things perfectly every single day. On those days when the list does get done to perfection, it’s such a high. But those days aren’t the norm.

We need to give ourselves some grace and compassion. And let go of that guilt.

That’s it for now, folks.

The trip ending up being amazing. And after years of struggling with anxiety that would have prevented me from going on a trip with the long flight and the hot weather, it’s never lost on me how far I’ve come to be able to be in a beautiful place with my friends.

Until next week.