As you know, we kicked off the launch of Nourish Weekly Menus last week with quite the event–5 days of giveaways on our Facebook page, from videos to e-cookbooks. It was awesome (I especially loved how the e-cookbooks turned out!). And I was EXHAUSTED.
Most of us, these days, run at a swift pace. It’s understandable; it just can’t be helped in our modern world. But it does make it even more essential to deliberately set aside time to recharge. And by Thursday of last week, I could tell I was definitely going to need recharging, and my sweet husband gave me permission to just sleep late and disappear on Sunday.
So I did.
I took off to the ocean, which, it never ceases to amaze me, is only about an hour away. Just watching the bars disappear from my iPhone felt freeing. Just having two concentrated hours to listen to a book on tape (The Three Marriages by David Whyte … incredible) felt indulgent.
The sun was strong and the breeze leisurely, so I lay out my blanket, stripped down to my bikini and soaked in the warmth. And for two blissful hours I didn’t have to corral my thoughts into focus, or answer rapid fire questions from my 4-year old every 20 seconds, or even move. I could just be.
I don’t make a practice of laying out in the sun–in fact, I’m normally a total wuss on Northern California beaches and bundle up in a jacket–but it felt especially liberating to me yesterday. When I was diagnosed with lupus in 1997, I was put on a drug that made me extremely sensitive to the sun. So the entire time Christopher and I were in Costa Rica on our extended road trip in 2000, I had to sit on the fringes of the beach, covered up in special SPF garb with huge, wide-brimmed hats. I remember watching other young women run along the sand and dive amongst the waves and feeling stifled and trapped. In my own body. It was the public manifestation of how far removed I felt from my own identity as I struggled to come to terms with having lupus, and losing the ability to have children.
That diagnosis was reversed and I went off the drug long ago and, like I said, I’m still careful in the sun. But the simple act of tilting my face up to the sky without fear still feels profoundly luxurious to me. You know what I mean? Do you have any little things you do that have an incredibly deep meaning for you?
Thank you to my husband for those three precious hours of reconnecting with who I am, now, here. Of re-inhabiting the healthy body I’m so grateful to have. And thank YOU for your incredible support with the Nourish Weekly Menus launch week!
PS — Check out what peeps are already saying about Nourish Weekly Menus:
“It was great to have easy recipes I could trust during the week to get good food on the table fast!”
“It was really fun to see what was on the menu each week. Once the shopping was done, the stress off my shoulders. The meals are fantastic, delicious and easy to make! Thank you!”