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Today marks my 12th day of work in a row with no break. Sure, my work day is probably about half of yours, divided into about three hours during the day and another 1-2 after dinner, but whenever I get frustrated about not being able to work more, I try to remember that duration matters less than drain on energy. Still, there’s part of me that think the damn Book would be done by now if there wasn’t all this other life that has to be dealt with. And resting. The resting really drives me nuts, although I’m getting better at trying to enjoy it.

Which isn’t the point of this post at all, but I am fried to the states of being crispy and although I have several posts percolating, they all require brainpower, of which there is blessed little by now. Because did I mention the 12 days in a row? Working for yourself is great, except when your boss’ approach is informed by their opinion that a sweatshop owner bends over backwards for their workers.

Today is about getting ready for the long weekend – Canadian Thanksgiving is imminent and I plan to take all three days to do very little – and that means not just getting groceries, but also squeezing in some work. Probably less than I’d prefer, because the shoulder is starting to bitch and unless I listen, my three-day weekend is going to be spent healing and I have other plans. All revolving around doing nothing – or rather doing Nothing – and doing so with great enthusiasm.

And here’s the interesting thing. Despite the rather intense pace around here for the last 12 days, my shoulder didn’t really start complaining until yesterday. I was thinking about it the other day, wondering exactly what I’ve done that had so remarkably moved me from limping through the day with ice packs on my shoulder and a ready access to codeine to zooming through day after productive day. It took me a while, but I finally pinned it down to two things.

The first is that I gave myself permission to temporarily close down the browser tab open with my feed reader. When my computer time is spent primarily writing rather than browsing the Internet, my shoulder is really happy. Of course, it does squat for my sense of guilt about not keeping up with the blogs I love to read, so I’m going to have to find some sort of compromise down the road. And the second? I’ve gotten much better at listening to my body, dropping everything when my shoulder starts to make its presence known. Of course, this is easier when it feels well enough for me to Get A Lot Done, but it’s a step in the right direction.

So this year, I’m thankful that I’ve finally started to learn the lesson, I’m thankful that my body has supported me through these last 12 days and I am very, very thankful that it’s a long weekend.