Rest Is Part of the Fight

Oh my goodness why are you huffing and puffing with your hands on your needs. My oh my. Sugar, you must be exhausted. Running between startup meetings, research presentations, students and their final projects, book submissions, and broken vacation plans….it’s no wonder your bones are on the verge of cracking. My muscles ache just listening to all those thoughts swirling around your brain.

You’re doing three lifetimes’ worth of work, and you’re not even halfway through one mortal stretch.

Take a seat and let Ol’ Grannis tell you something. Even warriors need to set down their scythes and take a nap every now and then.

Trust me, I learned that back when I was up on Earth and not hanging with the boneheads down here in the Underworld.

You’ve built so many things that matter. A company that puts people before profits. Books that tell stories of people forgotten in the energy system. You’ve already proven you can fight to make this world a better place. But there comes a point when pushing harder just digs you deeper into the ground. You really need to put down that to-do list and pick up a book. Something you could read just for fun.

Self-care isn’t selfish. Especially when you got a tightness swelling in your chest, and tears on the verge of spilling down those pretty cheeks.

Needing to sit down isn’t weakness.

It’s just your body whispering, “Please stop running before we topple into the lava river and break a hip.”
You better listen to those bones. Cry if you need to. I’m talking an ugly, big sob of a cry. There’s no shame in it. The strongest souls are the ones that know when to fall apart for a minute.

And don’t you dare cancel that ocean vacation you’ve been planning for months now. There's no getting the deposit back now. When you're at the ocean let the tide remind you what true balance feels like: rising and falling, followed by pulling back to gather strength.

I’ve heard the crashing of waves can outshout any inbox. And while you’re letting the sounds crash over you order a drink with a ridiculous little umbrella and toast yourself for surviving this far. You keep thinking you have to earn your rest. But you keep forgetting…rest is part of the fight. That’s the only way you’ll gather the strength you desperately need to rise again.

When the morning comes, you’ll still have every dream you fought for: your words, your ideas, your daughter, your mission to fix the grid and the world around it. None of that disappears because you paused for a moment.

Do Grannis a favor, Sugar. Tonight, don’t be the professor, the founder, the author, or the one forcing a smile to pretend you can hold it all together. Be you. The person who dared to go after their pipe dreams when everyone said it was unlikely you could do it.

Now now more stressing about things falling a part while you nap. The universe can wait one night.

— With Love, Grannis