Still

It’s been one of those weeks that feels both busy and really productive at the same time. The kind of week where I look back at the last few days and realise just how much I’ve managed to push over the finish line. Outstanding tasks finally completed and signed off. Meetings attended. Conversations had. Planning my team’s workload for the next couple of weeks while I’m on annual leave. So far this week, everything is coming together nicely.

There’s a real satisfaction in that. A sense of stewardship, of doing what needed to be done and doing it well. But if I’m honest, the pace of it all has left also left its mark on me too. Because when the working day ends, and the laptop closes, that’s when the challenge begins — trying to relax both physically and mentally – that hasn’t been easy. Not with so much going round in my head just now, both at work and in other things.

Sometimes the hardest part of a productive week isn’t the work itself, but the coming down from it. The slowing of the mind. The letting go of the thoughts that insist on circling long after the day is done. Yet even in that challenge, there’s a something I must always remind myself: I’m human. I care. I carry responsibility. But most of all, I’m doing my best to navigate it all with grace.

Maybe tonight must simply a time that I acknowledge that. About giving myself permission to breathe, even if the thoughts don’t settle straight away. About recognising that productivity is good, but peace is necessary. And that both take time.

As I move nearer to my annual leave, I must pause tonight, midweek and remember that rest isn’t something I earn only when everything is perfect. It’s something I’m allowed to take because I’ve given so much of myself already.

A verse I hold onto in this week:

My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Exodus 33:14

Here’s Hillary Scott & The Scott Family with the beautifully calm, steady reminder that even when your mind is full, God’s peace is not out of reach – Still.