Morning Powells,
I’m on a mini hiatus from work. Without going into too much detail, last weekend my entire brain turned to jelly and started to leak out of my ears. By Monday morning it was obvious to all involved that I wasn’t very well and that I needed a rest. A proper rest. People rallied and came to my aid. Publication dates have subsequently been moved, my work jolly to Bologna Children’s Book Fair next week has been cancelled and my out of office is on. I am venturing no further than a 3 mile radius from my house for the next few weeks.
I thought I would feel incredibly guilty about it all but actually, I don’t. The way I have been living, and working has not been working for quite a few years and I am so bone crushingly exhausted that the only thing I feel is deep gratitude for this opportunity to stop, re-evaluate and essentially, start over. I have purged my life down to nothing. Everything that was fighting for my attention, pulling me in a thousand directions, has either been postponed, cancelled, unsubscribed from, tidied away or donated. I have nowhere to be and nothing to do for a while. I have never felt so unburdened.
I have drawn a lot this week. Sitting down in my spare time to draw for pleasure makes me feel calm in a way nothing else can. My mind goes completely quiet and the world and all its chaos just appears to stop. Yesterday I felt brave enough to go Live on Substack but not brave enough to tell you about it in advance. I enjoyed it immensely and for 32 minutes I felt like I was Bob Ross. I think I’d like to make that a regular feature… maybe I’ll schedule it next time so you can make a cuppa.
Other than drawing, who knows what my life is going to look like now. I may slowly move away from instagram and show up here instead - it’s calmer, less shouty. I may start baking cakes. I will start learning to garden in my garden. It may be time to get a dog.
Yours, not in a rush,
Powell x
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