I believe in being steadfast in everything that I do, but the past few weeks have challenged my usual enthusiasm that I find myself doing the barest minimum.

It’s been somewhat a bag of mixed blessings, thankful to get up and do the things that need to be done in an automated mode and being thoroughly bored in-between – why I don’t know.

I don’t know whether to blame it on the torrid and melting heat over here, on unresolved problems that tug the edge of my mind or on having to take care of my family members where everyone seems to be sniffling, running temperatures, a bug here and there including myself or is it a combination of all?

There are days like today when I feel totally inundated and I simply want to reach out and chuck everything out of the window, then press the stop sign on the clock just to let life pause while I catch my breath.

I work at taking deep breaths and exhaling through the mouth, repeating it a dozen times, each breath let out to let go of pent-up emotions, anguish, and stress. I recognize that part of my stress is the unrelenting drive to succeed and when it seems that I am slower, I feel guilty for being slow which is absolutely wrong. There are lessons to be learned from being slow.

As I write this post, I take a pencil to my to-do list. I whittle it down to 5 simple things, making a clean slate for today and going slow. It’s a beautiful, blazing hot day today and I am thankful for common sense and to recognize that I’m not a superwoman, that there are days that I’ll be slow.

Today, I will only do 5 things – one of which is this, now it’s only 4 things; cook for my household, read other blogs, format my book, write that freelance post for publishing… already it sounds plenty.

Jacqueline