Feel Good Friday, 17th Edition

Here’s the info if you want to join in:

Step 1:
Pick one of these prompts and write about it on your blog!  You can:

• Just make a list. List 5 things that made you really happy this week. No matter how bad or boring you think your week was, I bet you can find 5 things.
• Write about something that happened to you this week that really made you smile.  Was it your child, husband, or maybe a complete stranger did to you?
• Write about something that YOU did for someone else that really made them happy or laugh.
• Is there something you treasure so much that every single time you look at it, it brings you happiness?  Post a pic and tell everyone about it.
• Having a hard week and can’t find one good thing about it?  Well then, what is your happy place?  What do you think of that makes you happy? A past vacation?  A childhood memory?  We want to know!

Step 2:
Head over here and link up with Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.  Then go and read at least one other blog and leave them a comment to make their day brighter.

Step 3:
Have fun.  Feel good.  Smile.

Then, start looking for all of the good things you can write about for next week!  Once you start looking for the “good”  you will find it everywhere!

Here goes…

I have my own company, with a business partner (my ex husband). We  have hotels (small, eco boutique cabanas in Mexico), meaning work has no schedule. But then, when you have your own business, there are no fixed work hours. For a little over ten years, I worked between fourteen and eighteen hour days, usually seven days a week.

And then last year it all stopped. My last day of work was June 30, 2009.

Does that date ring a bell? That means it was a year ago Wednesday that I had my last day of work. Initially, I was thinking of a couple of months to rest up and think about what I wanted to do before jumping into a new project.

The reality is that it’s taking a lot longer than that to be clear about what it is that I want to do. And I’m still recovering from various health issues that basically came about as a result of neglecting my health and rest for so many years.

So the reality is that, despite the fact that my yearlong sabbatical is technically over, I’m going to keep at it. Because I can.

And I’m going to keep trying to not feel guilty about not working. Because every time someone asks me what I’ve been up to, it’s hard for me to come up with an answer. I feel like I have to make excuses for myself, because just about everyone works. So I kind of feel guilty about not working.

But I’m learning all kinds of new things and discovering new interests. And I’m loving it. And I still need some recovery time for my health because I don’t want to get unbalanced like that ever again.

So, while I’m not sure which category this fits into, I’m thinking #2: something that made me smile this week. Because I realized it was the one year anniversary of my off-work time, and I’m really happy and very thankful with everything I have in my life. This is a great time of discovery and recovery for me.

Happy weekend, all! Enjoy!