Tag Archive - rest

Time For Rest

June 25, 2012 in Inspiration with 17 Comments

I’m on vacation this week. :-)

My husband and I, and his two grown children have come to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where we get the opportunity to hike some of the Appalacian Mountains. It’s one of my favorite things to do, as it has been my dream for years, to hike the entire Appalacian Mountains one day.

This is Brad and me in December 2011, just after we got married. We came to the Appalacian Mountains then, too, and stayed at the same place we are staying now. It’s nice to see it in two different seasons. 

I have looked forward to this vacation for quite some time now, as I have been very busy at work and home, and have had little time for rest. And I’m not talking about the 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night, I’m talking about the time to stop everything, reflect and reevaluate “stuff” in your life. It’s good to do this from time to time, but it’s even better if you live in a constant state of that kind of rest. It’s funny, but that is a lot of what project whitespace is about, “rest”, but it seems I have gone in and out of it for the past few months.

Again, same vacation in December 2011. Taking a moment by a stream for a picture. I hope to get many more of these pictures this week.

I think I have gotten so determined to build this blog, find it’s audience and DO something with it, that I have lost some of the value of why I started it in the first place: whitespace. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I’m doing with this blog, the people I’m meeting, and where I (hope) I am headed. But it seems that along the way, I need to center in more on the “rest” part of whitespace. The reflection. And writing is definitely a way that I reflect. So, while I’m on vacation this week, I am going to “reflect” in front of you with my writing. I hope you don’t mind.

Taking a moment to rest near the top of a mountain (December 2011). 

Resting, time for reflection, reevaluation and relaxing, is one of the most important things we can do for the health of our bodies, souls and minds. Have you made time to do this for yourself? Do you ever get so caught up in something you are doing that you forget to pause and reflect?

Time Off = Whitespace

October 24, 2011 in Inspiration with 1 Comment

Everybody needs a little time off from time to time. I love having time off. A day without the 8 to 5 routine is sweetness to me. I look at the sky, my dogs, my house, my happiness during time off. But time off from our 8 to 5 jobs doesn’t come as often as we wish, does it? There comes a time when a person needs to take time off from the routines in their lives in order to take time to look at the sky, their dogs . . .

That’s what I’ve been doing lately. I haven’t had the opportunity to take time off from work, because I’m swamped at work right now and there are certain things that just have to get finished. So I had to take time off from my personal routines. Blogging was one of them. I felt a small sense of incompleteness not blogging, but I decided I needed it, and I’m glad I took that time off. I also took time off from other things in my life during these last couple of weeks. What did I do?

Nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but I didn’t run around chasing the wind like I sometimes do. I spent time with my fiance, I spent time with my dogs, I recovered from the half-marathon I ran a week ago, and I re-evaluated some things in my life. In the same way that I needed to recover from the half-marathon and all the training involved in that, I needed to recover from my own self-induced busyness. Time off. Time off from me. Time off to invest in others. Time off to regain balance.

I have a tendency to want to do many things–all at once. I love to stay busy. I love to feel that I am moving forward in some way, even if it is small. But there are times we need to step back and rest and say “no” to the things that normally take our time. This can be hard. We want to keep our commitments, even if they are personal and seemingly (and probably) inconsequential to the true outcomes of our lives. But there are times this is necessary. It’s important to create a balance in life between busyness and rest. Rest is essential to our health and the quality of our personal output.

And rest doesn’t just mean sleep, though a nap or two can be greatly beneficial (and, oh, how I love a luxurious nap). Rest can be doing those things in life I like to call whitespace. It can mean turning off your phone for a day, ignoring your emails, and yes, even ignoring the mess in your house. It can mean taking the time to look at the sky, the way the clouds move, their speed, their shapes, their fury or lack thereof. It can mean talking to God, yourself, your kids, your significant other. True rest produces contemplation. True rest helps us to sort out the good and the bad. True rest means being thankful for both of those, because when we can be thankful for both, we can move forward. So true rest moves us forward. And so we accomplish something of value in rest.

Is there anything you can take time off from for a while?

What Is Whitespace?

August 19, 2011 in Inspiration with 1 Comment

Recently, my Mom emailed me and asked, “what exactly is whitespace? Is it a new age concept?”

I’ve had several people ask me this question. And while I have some explanation of it written in my About page, I thought I would share in a post what exactly whitespace is, and where the concept comes from, because I am sure others have the same question.

I wrote back to my mom:

Whitespace is actually a technical communication term. Its also used in graphic design. Its the idea that you need to have enough “whitespace” on the page to balance out the text and images. Too much text and images can overwhelm the reader or viewer of the page. You also have to have enough whitespace in websites.

I have heard artists call this the “resting point” but they also refer to it as whitespace. There needs to be a resting point in your painting so the viewers eyes can, essentially, rest.

So I took the term and applied it to life. We need whitespace in life in order to balance out all the busyness and unnecessary stuff in our life. So whitespace can be a place of peace and rest and a way to make more sense of all the other things in your life.

As a technical communicator, when I first learned of the concept, I loved it. It made sense. And as I applied it to my work (and as I continue to apply it), I can see how the concept should spill over into our everyday lives. That’s why I based this blog after the concept. I am hoping to capture more whitespace in my spirit, body, home and earth.