We are moving in the right direction. Some decisions have been made. Emails have been sent. Heck, we have a set of bunk beds in our guest room. We aren’t sure where our journey will now take us, but we have faith that it is where we are meant to be, and have a sense of contentment and joy surrounding that.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but Eli and I are constantly on the go. It’s hard for us to sit idle for too long. We like to do—stuff. Whether it’s checking out a great brewery, starting a new house project, grading papers, helping out family, visiting great friends, we are always in constant motion. We try to live our life fully, and what a great life to live. This is great, and don’t get us wrong, we are incredibly thankful that we are blessed with a life that allows us to do these things. We are fully aware of that.

I look out my window and am still expecting to see lush green trees and hear the laughter of kids at summer camp. Reality is the leaves have already fallen, clocks have changed, and Thanksgiving is around the corner.

One area, however, that we do fall short in is self-care. The concept of self-care applies to all people and all families but has become super vital within our lives. And let’s just face it, we suck at it. Eli and I tend to be pretty self-sufficient. We share a lot of our lives and our journey, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty stuff, we work through it, we learn from it, and we push on. I’m proud of our resiliency, but we hit points where we deplete our tank. There is only so much we can do. There are only so many obligations we can fill, so many phone calls to make, so many resources we can exhaust, so many places we can be. We want to do it all. And guess what, we are realizing that we can only run for so long until the tank is empty.

So because Eli and I are doers we need some kind of action to fix this “depletion” we are feeling. But where do we go? What do we cut back on? What obligation do we not fulfill? What relationship do we not nurture? How do you set priorities in your life for things that are all really important?

The big question is: what do you do when you’re very content, happy with decisions you’re making, but feel depleted? You take on the simplex task of personal introspection and figure out which areas of your life can give a little without having to give them up. How can we learn bamboo resilience–bending but not breaking?

~Chelsea