Festive time off

(Nimue)

Some years I manage to take off the week between Christmas and New Year. Not reliably though. Part of the issue has always been covering what I would otherwise have done in the gap. Self employed and freelance people do not get paid holidays. In years when I’ve been doing a lot of paid social media work, the effort of setting up posts in advance for multiple clients often didn’t feel worth it. Social media sites will punish you for not posting often enough and when you’ve worked to build a presence, that’s not something to abandon.

This year I’m only looking at covering blog content and the things I’ve committed to over on Patreon. I don’t take Patreon holidays – having promised people content, I prioritise honouring that. The challenge for December will be getting the January Murder Village chapter sorted, and the January instalment of Everyday Druidry.

It helps that I’m not travelling for any gigs this month – the only two in the diary were local. January is also a quiet month for gigs usually, and there’s only one in the diary at time of writing. I’ve opted not to try and do and Christmas markets this year – that’s always a gamble what with the cost of stalls and insurance, the investment of time and energy and all the things I can’t do while standing behind a stall being very cold.

There’s something very powerful about having a whole week off. Over the years I’ve explored working seven day weeks (just don’t) having one day off, or two or more and the effect is very different. Taking time off in a chunk makes it possible to really rest and unwind, and even to do fun things from a place of feeling well resourced. In my ongoing mission to improve my health and take better care of myself, I’m intent on giving myself that this year. It’s honestly the best Christmas present I could have.

For perspective, I’ve written this post right at the end of November. Partly because I needed to set the intention and partly because keeping the content flowing takes some setup work. There’s no point trying to do it all at the last minute and then hitting the time off feeling so exhausted that the only thing I can do is sleep.

I hope that you are able to take good quality time off during these shortest of days. I hope there will be blessings at your hearth, and comforts aplenty and that you will find abundance and joy in the days to come. There will be something to read here every day – I’m conscious that this can be a very hard season for anyone feeling lonely or isolated. I will be checking in regularly for comments.