Dear Reader Column 05-27-09

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Dear Reader,

Three weeks is a long time. It's so good to be back!

Two times in my life I've taken a three week vacation. (Okay, so I admit the past three weeks haven't really been a vacation.) But the extended time away from work did bring back memories of my only other three week holiday.

When our kids were young my father-in-law, who wasn't a rich man, gave my husband and me a healthy check, suggesting that pretty soon the kids would all be grown, so we needed to take a memorable family vacation now. Grandpa offered to take care of our cats and off we flew to Yellowstone National Park. Indeed it was a memorable vacation, but it was too long. At the end of just two weeks, the extreme nervousness and anxiety I felt pointed out to me just how much of my work is me. Which I suppose isn't such a bad thing, if you like your work. But on that particular occasion, I wasn't missing work I loved, instead it was more of a "white-knuckled" sort of longing. I felt like things were out of control because I'd been away too long. And when I finally did return, work felt the same as I'd left it--a daily tension-filled worry.

But these past three weeks have been different. Once the pain from my surgery subsided a bit and I started entertaining thoughts of returning to work, they were pleasant, comforting thoughts. I felt anxious to return, but not because I needed to feel in control. Instead I missed my every day routine, because I actually love what I do, and that thought made me feel proud of myself. Because sometimes I have a bad habit of repeating certain unpleasant behaviors in my life, 'For heaven sakes Suzanne aren't you ever going to learn, aren't you ever going to make progress?'

Indeed I have.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com

* This month's Penguin Classics book is The House Behind The Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt. To comment on the book and enter the Penguin Classics Drawing, go to: http://tinyurl.com/MayClassics

Comments

[Renee]

It's great to have you back!