Release.

For those of you who have wondered, yes, I am enjoying my first days of release.

I call it release because that is literally what it feels like. My mom asked a poignant questions in the week I was deciding about my job, "What words come to your head when you think of being done?"

And the first things that came from my lips were "Release. Relief. Freedom." She said those words were clarifying, telling, and gave me my answer. I believed her.

And lately I would add to that, "Life. Breath. Stillness. Newness. Awake. Be."

Among those I still come back to release. Because that is literally what it feels like. A release.

A release to be me, a release to feel, a release to let life be held close again. A release to step off the treadmill, to step down from the stage, to simply come back to the heart of the things I love. To come back to the things that make me, me.

So in these first days of release, know I am doing well. As I write this, I am drinking Hot Cinnamon Sunset from a close friend, I am holding my Spanish-looking mug from my sweet sister and loved mom, I am lightning a pink Stargazer Lily candle from a cherished soul, and writing cards back to those I hold dear.

These days, I am staring at the splashes of color gifted in flowers from friends. I am creating time for phone calls, lingering over coffees and friends, and corresponding with those I love. I am dressed in my comfies, and cooking over campfires. I am showing up to places with nothing on my face but mascara. I am softening in my morning robe over a worn book and dreaming again of nights in the beach breeze. I am scrawling lists of my favorite places and cherishing moments to share them with my coming friends. I am loving the quiet of my music, and the blaring of my voice over it. I am holding these good things of life close.

In these first few days of release, I am that: released. I am thankful. I am blessed. I am coming back to me. And I am feeling it. Release.