hustle culture + Sabbath
how slower movements help busy days
Girlies, the summertime just begs for slower movements, you know, like vacays, work from home days, and did someone say spa? While I’m here for a slower pace of living, I don’t want to get that mixed up with unintentional actions. And I don’t want to be so hard on myself when I do enjoy rest. This concept is actually biblical.
As life goes, we all will have seasons of grind and seasons of rest. As a black woman, raised by another black woman (single mom, at that), I don’t believe I have a “soft life” bone in my body, which can be good and bad. Tbh, black women are trained to hustle, grind and hustle some more.
For instance, it was our fourth annual VBS (Vacation Bible School) last week at my church and as youth director, I had the pleasure of compiling all the logistics and curriculum, buying materials and food, and a host of other things on my plate. While I had some help, it is always a jammed packed week that leaves me exhausted, yet full of hope for the younger generations.
However! As a freelance writer, I was supposed to pitch to this publication that I assumed would have closed for pitches last week. I have a running list of places I pitch to by EOW (end of week) every week, yet I dragged my feet so bad with this one!!
Stakes were high and there was going to be no way that I missed out on pitching last week… but by the time Friday got here (we ended early this year due to a Juneteenth Trip), ya’ girl spent all of about six hours doom scrolling and playing some pitiful game.
The beauty of it is calls for pitches didn’t close last week (I must have read the fine print wrong), but God came through in a big way (per usual)!
While I see that day now was a reprieve, I felt so bad about not pitching when I supposed to pitch! I don’t condone spending unhealthy amounts of time on social media (like never!), but I needed time to relax, even if it was just staring at my phone.
Saturday, I went out of town with my family, and my Sundays are always filled with the beautiful task of serving at my church.
All that to say, I have to live my life poured out but I don’t have to ascribe to hustle culture to do it. The adage says our lives are but a mist. I, literally, don’t have time to waste.
While last Friday was a relaxation day for me, I couldn’t truly relax because I was fearful of not being able to get income from my writing. And that kind of thinking is called scarcity mindset. God knew I had a busy week, he knew I’d feel worn out physically, mentally, and spiritually therefore needing a break.
And he knew one pitch won’t make or break me. Freelancing jobs come and go and new jobs appear (like magic, ngl) everyday. I call this season: unbothered.
The whole social media session, caused me to be more clear in my thoughts in preparation for my pitch. It was about generative AI in education, so the scrolling was a big help, LOL (I’m adjunct professor and a vet high school teacher of nine years, so my socials are filled with that kind of content).
In the end, I submitted my pitch Sunday night at about 11pm, so I (technically) honored my EOW deadline after all.
Keep being honest,
Shanisha.