Thursday 26 February 2009

Post Holiday Blues

The difficulty with going away - even when going away has been fun and exciting and given opportunities to fly kites, walk on beaches, watch very rude and hilarious stand up comedians on videos, spend time with relatives and friends - is that one really needs a rest when you get back.

My virtual in-tray (emails, phone messages, mental list of people to visit...) and the mountainous heap on my desk are screaming for attention and all I want to do is sleep. People keep asking me what I'm giving up for Lent - I'm tempted to point them to Jesus word's in Matthew's Gospel about not making a public display of one's abstemious piety - but mostly my glib answer is 'I'm giving up free time'. The workload was full already and now it is somehow meant to absorb the Lenten study needs of three different congregations, my own personal (with help from Christian Aid) 'Journey to Jerusalem' and (with help from the Methodist Church) 'Still Time'.

I know, I know, stop moaning and get on with it - I am trying to give up being grumpy for Lent! So I am not giving up chocolate or wine and this year I'm not giving up shopping - what I need help with is to give up the guilt of never being on top of the workload - any ideas?

3 comments:

  1. How I wish I could, Micky! I'm glad you had a good holiday and I'll pray for you as you clear your backlog.

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  2. Micky,

    "what I need help with is to give up the guilt of never being on top of the workload - any ideas"

    Listen more to Alison Tomlin :-) I know I need to.

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  3. Whilst some things clearly need to be challenged (principally in terms of other peoples' expectations of what it is possible for one person to do), I suspect there is also a wisdom in accepting that this is the way that it is, and the way that it probably always will be, and that not being on top of the workload doesn't mean you're doing it wrong, or that there's some magic solution you have yet to find (or at least, Micky, if you DO find it, please tell me, cos I could do with it too.) Now - is that teaching grandmother to suck eggs or what?!

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