by Patheresa Wells

Every morning — well, almost every morning — I get up, and the first thing I do is complete three longhand pages of writing. This exercise is a creative brain dump based on the “morning pages” exercise found in The Artist’s Way. Usually, what I write in my pages stays there. But occasionally, an idea sticks with me and asks for more room. This holiday season, as I reflected over the past few months, the past year, and how long it has been since we have been in this pandemic, a thought stuck with me beyond the written page. It’s something I’ve had to tell myself many times in the past, something that I have never really felt­:  that it’s okay to take a break — if you can.