Issue #132 | August 21, 2026 | Previous issues​

Hey Reader,

I want to wail the way a child does over their ice cream that fell and melted into oblivion.

Summer is slipping through my fingers, just like that, faster than I can savor it.

Between weeks of recurring sore throats and a month of wonderful visitors from Italy and beyond...I'm ready to chain myself to a chair on the beach and bury the key deep in the sand.

Sayonara responsibilities 👋.

Hello sunshine 🌞 and strawberry margaritas 🥤.

Life has a way of making you earn vacations, doesn't it?

You shed sweat, blood, and tears until one day you look up and realize you're burnt out and need a break.

But you look around and see that nobody else is taking a break (only the irresponsible, jobless, lazy ones are), and so you feel guilty for even thinking about it.

You know you need rest. The clues are built right into nature, aren't they?

The sun sets.

The moon glows like a nightlight.

Animals sleep, even during the day.

Trees sleep.

Your eyes can't stay open after a certain hour.

Your brain switches off, even when you fight it.

Even God early on declared a sabbath day for himself and then the Jews.

But you've got so much work to do. So many places to be. So many people relying on you, especially children.

Everything and everyone needing you is legit and important, so much so that you're afraid to admit you need rest.

Well, I'm done with that.

Call it rebellion. I've never been one to follow the crowd anyway.

Call it cynicism, but I'm waging war against being so dutiful, responsible, and productive that I disappear in the cracks.

If I can't control the clock. If I can't convince summer to slow down. If I can't beg endless work to give me a break. If I can't talk society into doing less or to stop piling invites into my inbox or mailbox.

Then I will have to do it myself.

Cause no one can live my life for me.

That is my job.

I want to be a participant in my own life.

I want to taste my food to the fullest extent possible, rather than rushing through.

I want to dance without guilt (and buy dance shoes to match).

I want to hike more than once a week.

I want someone else to cook, clean, and balance the checkbook, once in a while.

I want to wake up slowly and let my body unfurl in its own time.

I want to decide (without guilt) if I'm going to attend that wedding, funeral, or graduation party.

Don't you see why?

Cause once the ice cream drips onto the floor, it's gone. There's no getting it back.

This doesn't mean I'm selfish or never give of my time and resources. It means I get to decide HOW my time and resources are managed based on my actual capacity.

I don't have to earn rest.

And when I'm tired, I muster up the courage to say so.

When I need a break, I defy every voice – internal and external – that says I don't deserve it or that the world will fall apart if I let myself take it.

I promise you this...you aren't impressing anyone with your useful exhaustion. Not even God.

With love and rest,

Anna

P.S. Consider this your permission slip to be gloriously unproductive for a little while 😉.

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