I’ve written zero, zippo, nada since my limericks on the day before Passover, and I now have three pieces outstanding to editors, the first of which is due on Friday. YOW!
As a religious Jew, I was unable to write for most of the Pesach holiday, and chose not to during the more lenient, intermediate days (chol hamoed), as well. Hence the pile up on my to-do list. This post will necessarily be brief. I’ve got to peruse the notes I scribbled two weeks ago, when I received the assignment that’s due first, and start writing.
I think the vacation from writing was good for me, though. I spent a lot of creative energy on cooking (including trying a couple new recipes, even inventing an awesome vegan chocolate chip cookie that is 1) totally kosher for Passover, 2) easy, and 3) scrumptious) and also just playing with and enjoying my husband and kids. We played hours and hours of Monopoly Deal & Old Maid, and visited fun places in L.A. like the zoo and a local U-Pick farm. I let my husband and eldest son pick most of our outings–the WWII Aviation Museum was an unexpected delight. Letting them be in charge allowed me to relax and let go.
Now it’s back to creative work, but it seems a little less like work after the vacation.
Rebecca Klempner 
You make an excellent point, perhaps without even realizing it: relaxing and letting go is as critical to creativity as anything else. I recently did the opposite and broke my own “no-work-on-Saturdays” rule (the concurrence of a large piece with a last-minute deadline and a Sunday holiday meant I had little choice). The problem with trying to work on Sat. is that, without fail, I’m too burnt out to be productive and end up wasting LOTS of time just trying to focus. I was more productive on Sunday and met my Monday deadlines. Yay for that, but here it is Wed. and I am almost completely unable to focus or produce or even care about not focusing or producing. All I want to do is write dismal Facebook posts that make me sound either like Eeyore or Sally Brown (Charlie’s spoiled sister). Boohoo for me.
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It’s burnout, baby. I think everyone needs a vacation. The problem is cell phones and laptops tend to invite work to creep into our relaxation time. But relaxation isn’t just entertainment; it’s renewal.
Maybe you need a little “me” time after work–read a book or see if there are late hours at a museum or something. If things have thawed a bit, maybe you can take an extra-long walk with the dogs and look for paperwhites, crocuses, and other springtime things.
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Thanks for dropping by my blog. I was seriously considering doing “C is for Chametz” on ‘C’ day because I was still in the post-Pesach coma, but then I realised the entire piece would probably have been an ode to the pizza I ate once chag was over!
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🙂 Pizza after Passover is almost as big a tradition as Chinese food on X-mas, isn’t it? 😉
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