Self Care

Sean recently posted about self care.  Chaplains are bad at it, so are other clergy, doctors, and most of those involved in the so-called "helping" professions.  

One of the pluses of being a rabbi couple is that while we are not so good at taking care of ourselves, we are very good at taking care of each other.  Most of the time it works.  I frequently remind Sean that he is supposed to work two parts of any day, meaning morning and afternoon, afternoon and evening, or morning and evening.  It's a lesson stressed in the last year of rabbinical school.  Sean doesn't always pay attention, but it's a niggling thought in the back of his mind.

Sean reminds me that I am supposed to work 21 hours a week.  I sort of listen.  It keeps me from working too many more.  I am also the last person in the world not to have a smartphone.  My phone doesn't know how to check email.  I like it that way.  It too helps me keep my part-time job part time.

Unfortunately, when Sean is away my self care reminder leaves.  Even worse, he turns into a catch-22.  We often skype in the evening.  Talking to Sean regularly helps me digest my day, relax, and lower my blood pressure, usually, but being tied to the computer trying to condense a full day's worth of talk into a short time simply stretches the evening well past its expiration time.  Single parenting also has its ups and downs.  Our schedule is based on two parents.  It takes about two weeks to create a new schedule. That's how long Sean's usually gone.  He returns and it starts all over again.

Still, I'm working on it.  I kick-box twice a week.  We got a treadmill.  We actually use the treadmill for its intended purpose.  We do not hang laundry on it.  I watch lots of silly movies and some not so silly. I read and read and read (another catch-22- I often get so involved in the book I forget to sleep).  It's a work in progress.

Currently, my work in progress means I need to log off and go to sleep.  It's midnight.  Pleasant dreams.