Deep Breath

I just came back from an 8-days break in Melbourne, a postponed trip in itself. I had to take a deep breath, besides fulfilling our wish for an overseas family trip before our girl turns 2.

After we came back, we basically spent the first day sleeping, and the other day putting our lives back together. I had to disregard all my originally planned work items. Something did not feel right.

It was as if the breath was not deep enough.

Since our last long overseas trip in 2013 to the North American continent, we have not had a long trip, as we were waiting for our little girl to grow up a bit more. Towards the end of that period (earlier this year), our work life started to feel like a blur. I was shouldering too much responsibility while my wife is battling her own challenge with increased work load.

We kept ourselves sane by taking short breaks to pop out of the water and catch a breath, taking turns in cleaning and parenting. I was furiously trying to recruit to help out for all work fronts. We relented on doing everything ourselves and started paying for a part time cleaner. Our evening pick up time for our girl gets later and later.

And we thought we need to Stop and take a much deeper breathe. Something long enough to cleanse.

You all know how this story would end: With connectivity the break is really just escaping physically. There was a bunch of work that had to be brought along, but fortunately we managed to find time to complete it in between our itinerary. We dramatically reshuffled our tour path to adjust to the unanticipated cold front and our girl’s unstable temperature – and I had to adjust my total output too. There’s no escaping of “life” as we know it even when we’re having a “break”.

I thought about this on the flight back and last 2 days, until I attended a wedding reception which I thought would be over after snapping a few pictures, to end my “long” 10 day break. And reality struck me – I had to “work” at the snap of a finger as I was suddenly surrounded by well meaning government officials bombarding my questions and opinions about the startup.

There’s no break really 🙂

The moral of the story for myself is to learn to take that deep breathe no matter where I am. I’m fortunate to be able to function as an entrepreneur or a musician with my medulla oblongata, so I’d use that to my full advantage. Some days you might see me there fully present with you, but deep inside I might be resting, taking that deep long breathe to recuperate from my last product building marathon.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Tomorrow is the start of internship season! Catch another breath in September.