It’s time to recharge.
Whether an author, a guest speaker, or an electrician (as was my late dad), we all need a place or an activity where we can shut off the flow of thought about work for a little while and replenish our souls. To be ready to tackle it again another day.
My dad bowled, or loaded us into the car and took us to obscure travel sites (seriously, places such as the “House Made of Coal” and the “Deepest Hand-dug Oil Well”). I, too, have many such respites (from our back porch to mindlessly matching candies in an online game). My favorite, though, is up here, at our tiny cabin, on a quiet lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
Our cabin is one of a handful left from its time as a secluded “resort,” where visitors seeking fish and solitude—or nights of stories and beers around the campfire–would rent little cabins for a week at a time during the all-too-fleeting Wisconsin summer. We bought it about a dozen years ago. It overlooks a lake, far from any population center, small enough so as not to draw the pleasure crafts and jet skis, but large enough to provide a home for loons and eagles, and an occasional, little, aluminum fishing boat seeking a bounty.
Right now, I’m watching a pair of fishermen cast the enormous lures needed to catch the elusive (and also enormous) musky. The musky is called the “fish of 1000 casts” because only patience and perseverance (and a bit of luck and knowhow) will finally land you one. If you fish, I’m sure it’s the perfect way to recharge.
Me? I like to observe. I subconsciously register the wind roaring through the hemlocks, a cheering crowd at some far-off football game. I watch the kingfishers dart through the trees along the shore. The hummingbirds squeak and whirr by, finally pausing on a pine branch overhead. The breeze plays the perfect counterpoint to the increasing warmth of a noontide sun. A squirrel walks cautiously nearby, checking out the guy tapping away on his computer.
And recharging.
To write another day.
For more suggestions about recharging, check out these sites:
10 Easy Methods How To Recharge Yourself For A Fresh Start (stunningmotivation.com)
How to Recharge: 16 Science-Backed Habits that Restore (greatist.com)
CasettaKids.com 