stop, revive, survive

I've had quite a few weeks off blogging. Partly, due to having had three weeks holiday - in Australia, visiting our middle son, Ben, which was an accumulation of a host of wonderful experiences. Partly, I've needed to follow the advice on this sign, of which we saw countless numbers, driving around.
We all need to stop, sometimes. I think it's the weekly rhythm of sabbath, we neglect at our peril, but applications can be made daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. However, what began to frustrate me, reading these signs everywhere, was: I don't simply want to survive, I want to thrive. 

Holidays are great, but they don't automatically deal with the issues, which may be causing us the stress, to put us in the place where 'I need a holiday'. For example, last year. We had a break, a great time, a switch off from everything else. Then I returned!
Some of you know where this is going. September is typically busy, the beginning of the year, in so many respects. So, arriving home to a pretty full diary of commitments, I have a back-log of accumulated e-mail, new demands, some of which appear to need attention sooner, rather than later, plus another massive amount of time required to attend to unavoidable legal matters (I clocked up 61 hours on this alone in one month).
So, my holiday helped me survive, but until the underlines causes could be addressed, that's all it would do. 
This time around, I find I don't have the drains on my energy, which were around last year. I'm still catching up, still have demands for my time, but I'm not content to simply survive now. The only barrier to thriving, remaining, therefore, is me!

PS 'slowing down' is one of the key practices I'm highlighting in Christian DNA Groups.