Thank Goodness

I could likely be working for the whole Christmas through New Year's period (that's a new place to be!), but come the 25th, I will be on vacation with my family. I will not be working.
 
The people who worked with me for twenty years came to know how difficult it was for me to take time off. Early on, I begged my producer to let me work when she sent me home to nurse a case of bronchitis. And even at the end, I would sooner squeeze in appointments and errands than take off days to do them.  Call it loyalty, call it work ethic, call it making a buck--I have always had a hard time turning down work.
 
Yet, this year, though I can still remember twelve months ago, when I was free and clear to travel but sad and depressed about no work to come back to, I am choosing family. Maybe it is the chorus of voices ready to go away. Maybe it is some kind of new-found perspective. It's not easy for me--it's still hard to believe that work will still be there a week later, and that I won't feel the effects of a lost week of salary all year--but I am ready to take the leap of faith. The fact that you have been out of work doesn't mean you can never take a vacation again. The fact that you are working doesn't mean only a choke hold will keep the work from disappearing. And most important, family vacations with the husband and children who have been in your corner, work or no work, won't happen forever.
 
So, thank goodness for work. Really. Thank goodness.
 
But thank goodness for vacation too.