Sometimes it’s OK…

Photo by Paul Harris on Unsplash

I’ve written a blog here, on Substack, every week, for a for a little over  year. I’ve written about nature, illness, ageing, food waste, homelessness, sleep,  aging, suicide and mental health in general,gardening, music, social media, kindness, body image, writing, imposter syndrome, positivity and resilience and much more - 64 articles in total as well as a sheaf of notes. I’ve shared the personal, the private and things that are important and I’ve shared some levity too, because it isn’t good to take ourselves and everything else too seriously all of the time.

I’ve connected with some great people and some excellent publications. It’s been refreshing to not feel like I’m talking into the void or an echo chamber of my own making. Social media can be fickle - Substack is an altogether different  space.  I’ve not worked out what ‘works’ - when the best time to send a new article is, what topics people will engage with, or how to grow my subscription base, yet it’s been a positive experience so far and for me it’s more about engagement and belonging than numbers.

We’ve welcomed a rescue dog into our family over the last couple of days (you might have seen my note on Thursday) and life has become more higgledy-piggledy, less controlled.  We’re establishing routines and protocols, but it will take time, consistency and patience - as with a lot of things in life.  We’ve had some sleepless nights and some accidents, as you would expect with a traumatised rescue dog, but it’s early days and doggo shows positive signs of responsiveness and settling in.  Some things have gone out the window this week, including my regular Friday email.  I hope you will accept this one instead and if not there are 63 other articles you can look through! It’s not what I intended to write (or when) but sometimes it’s OK to shelve the routine, to be adaptable, to not be too strict with ourselves, whether that’s writing an article for Substack or anything else.  Sometimes it’s OK not to do that thing that you’ve been regimented or pressurised into doing - either by yourself or someone else. Sometimes it’s not only ‘OK’, but actually good for us to say ‘No. I can do that another day or not at all’.  We can get so immersed in routine and perceived people-pleasing that we don’t give ourselves the flexibility to have a break or do something new. Let’s give ourselves permission from time to time. It won’t be the end of the world.

I wish I could share photos of this lovely animal, but they’re currently subject to a court order and it’s not permitted, until they are the ‘property’ of the Scottish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) One day maybe.  I might share some of our journey in notes from time to time, we’ll see how it goes.

Wishing you an enjoyable weekend, however that looks for you.  We will have our work cut out for us, I think!