Savor. Yes, You. Right Now.

Yeah, you have to look closely at the picture to make out the scratched-in letters.  That's sort of the point, though.  Savoring takes time.  Usually, we don't savor very well - we're in too much of a rush.  When you get caught up in deadlines and last-minute "emergencies that aren't" (I'm looking at you, everything to do with information technology upgrades) to the point that you forget to eat, you don't savor the meal that you hastily unwrapped and inhaled.  Sure, you kept from getting so hungry that you made a royal ass out of yourself in the client meeting, but really - you want to count that as a win?

Aim higher.

Look, I know more than I like to admit about failing to find balance between work and life.  I eat too many meals at my desk, I answer too many e-mails when I'm supposed to be at home off the clock, and I fret far too much about things, people, and places over which I have no - zero, nada, zilch, nil - absolutely no control.

So maybe I'm the perfect person to tell you this.

Stop.

Just.  Stop.  Not forever, but just for a few minutes.

In the last few days, I've reached a major milestone in a project that started more than 18 months ago.  It's not done yet, although I think that faint shimmer on the horizon is the finish line, so I can almost see it from here.  This is a project that I am button-bustingly-proud of and it is only right and proper to take some time to savor the accomplishment.  (Seriously - if you wait for the world to crown you, you're likely to be waiting a l-o-n-g time for that sash and tiara.  I'm telling you, go buy your own and call yourself the "Possum Princess" or the "Count of Accounting" or whatever suits your particular fancy.  Don't worry what other people think - mostly, they're jealous that they didn't think of the idea and very few people will say much of anything to someone confident enough to wear a tiara, especially when coupled with a heavy scepter.)

So I've been savoring.  With the help of my intrepid co-author and Savoring Majordomo, FryDaddy, I have or have plans to:

• Take a day off - no work at all on anything.  No checking e-mail, no "just this one thing."  Nuttin'.
• Sleep in on a weekday.
• Eat a deliciously hearty breakfast brunch that would make any decent physician blanch with horror.  But tell me what makes bacon better than warm maple syrup left over from a thickly-buttered waffle.  Exactly.  Nuttin'.
• Read a sword & sorcery novel that is so by-the-numbers that I can predict the ending.  Read to the end anyway.
• Take a nap in the middle of the day with my husband.
• Decorate the house for Halloween.
• Consider the possibilities of pumpkin.
• Have a long phone call with my parents, who have been short-changed during this last writing push.
• Discover new ways to combine coffee and sugar.  (Cortadito, anyone?)
• Spend a day in an undisclosed location with a girlfriend, a stack of glossy magazines, and a licensed esthetician.
• Make dinner from scratch.
• Daydream about teaching the cats the foxtrot.
• Eat an entire pint of really good ice cream in a single sitting.
• Take time.

Above all else, take time.  Look around and be sure you can answer the question, "Why do I do this?"  Sure, sometimes it's simply to pay the bills and keep the wolf from the door; I get that.

But life needs to mean more than that.

Our responsibility is to make sure that it does.