My wife and I are headed out for a week-long adventure and a much needed getaway for just the two of us.

As excited as we are for a vacation together, we are truly sad to leave our kids for a week. We’ve never been apart from them for more than a few days. This little week will fly by for all of us, I’m sure, and bring us back together refreshed and with renewed appreciation for each other. (Or lifelong bitterness from our kids that they were stuck in school while mom and dad were frolicking in the sun on a tropical getaway.)

For this week, though, I also will be taking a hiatus from posting here daily.

I challenge myself to post daily. And I find it to be a worthwhile practice. I begin each day with the expectation that I need to find something worthwhile to share. This intent adds a juicy tension to my days. My antennae are up. Knowing I need to find something to write even a few words about before the day is done, my mind is on a constant search for ideas and insights. I’m a hunter-gatherer of possibilities. Most days don’t deliver any profound poetic breakthroughs. But occasionally I’ll stumble across something that resonates and reshapes my imagination in even a tiny, but meaningful, way.

And then the practice of trying to craft the words to express myself, as hard as it continues to be, brings this painfully earned satisfaction. Writing never feels easy. But it’s a worthwhile struggle.

When doing a guided meditation the instructor may at some point tell you to intentionally let your mind wander away from your breath for a moment. Then, after that pause, you’re guided to bring your attention back to your body and to your breath.

That hiatus and then coming back is a reassuring reminder that you have control. Falling off the path for a moment does not mean you’re lost. It’s the getting back on, and knowing you will get back on the path, that matters.

I just might still post while I’m away this week, but I’m not sticking to my daily discipline. I’ll start a new string of daily writing after this brief hiatus.

Aloha!