Taking a Breath

Taking a breath sometimes..no often; is essential to create that balance in our lives.  It is something I always seems to be striving for but never quite attaining.  I recently was approached to act as a nurse consultant to a medical health care advertising company for a project they are working on for a major pharma company.   It would involve me stepping away from community health for a while.  All of a sudden that seemed like a very attractive proposition and I realized I needed a break more than I thought I did.  Like most women I think I am superwoman Mon-Fri, then your diet goes to hell in a hand basket because you have less time to organize the pantry, then the fitness regime you promised to follow starts to teeter, then the sleep pattern goes and well, then its all over, you may as well ask the men in white coats to come and take you away in straight jacket!!!  This epiphany came just in time, during a recent trip to see my college age children they informed me that when I am over committed (like all the time!) I range from nasty to an extreme micro manager......really.......and I thought I was handling everything so well!!!

So, I took the option not to renew my contract with the home health agency I have been working with for the past 3 years, put on my corporate clothes (dug them out from the back of the closet) and went off to my first meeting.  Intimidated?  Oh yes, these ad agency creative types are way above me in terms of creativity and dialogue, but during my first meeting I realized we were talking a similar language and our mutual link of health care gave us more in common than I thought.  I have really enjoyed working with this group, not sure where it will go as it is a contract position that could be short or long lived depending on the success of the project.  

I was also asked to pick up an extra clinical teaching day for a colleague who had to go out sick for the rest of the semester.  More students, mentoring and coaching the next generation of nurses, bring it on.  So far they have proved to be a promising and lovely group, I am enjoying them a great deal.  So even though I am still working several jobs, apart from 2 days of teaching I am at home telecommuting and I love it!!  I love the flexibility, I love the fact that I do not quite know what I will be doing after Christmas.  I love the ability to breath a little and recover from that burnout that we all experience every now and again.

Only a week until the kids come home for Thanksgiving, it has to be my favorite week in the whole year, hanging out in our pj's, eating bad food and lots of it and crazy hours of the day and night.  And then packing everyone off back to school with all the leftovers.  Cannot wait!!!  All I need now is a huge snowstorm and I will be extremely happy.