My first personal day -- courtesy of my crew

I'm not one for skipping class, showing up to work late, or missing work for anything short of bronchitis.  Today was an exception.

This past week I've been feeling exceptionally burnt out from a combination of getting over a cold and having worked a long season that's nearing its end. I have been thinking about the idea of perspective and how it can be gained and lost, and what it means for your sense of place, decision making, and ideas of what you value.  In the past few days, I've been playing with being intentional about restoring a sense of perspective--which may just be a wordy way of saying I've taken two baths, called my family, tried to read a book I started months ago, wrote a letter to a good friend, went hiking, and have been trying to get more sleep.

Today was lovely, too, for both perspective and rest.

A few days ago, as we were "daily-ing" (cleaning a cabin when the guests haven't changed... a general daily "tidy up"), one of my crew members and I were talking about energy levels throughout the season, the role of rest, and persistence.  Without thinking twice, she said I should take Sunday off of work.  Sundays are the big "turn-over" day in the summer (when all the guests check out and the new set checks in by 3 pm), so I spend the day coordinating the deep cleaning of 10 cabins and 3 lodge rooms.  Not the best day to take off. So she convinced me to take off Tuesday as a personal day instead.  Everyone on my crew said they'd cover me for the day and didn't mind cleaning extra so I could have a day off.

Here's how I started my day....

... Riding to the top of Indiana Hill on a horse named Buckle to watch the sunrise over the aspen-dotted mountains on the way to breakfast out by Homestead Cabin -- breakfast croissants, blueberry muffins, fresh fruit, and coffee.

 ~perspective~

One week of energy awareness: no coffee, no booze, Kombucha every day

It's easy, especially at a ranch, to regulate energy levels chemically.  I was more addicted to caffeine during my first months working here than at any other point in my life.  People are interesting, and the weather is perfect, and porch sitting until late at night has never seemed more compelling.   And there's always a pot of coffee sitting around in case you stay up too late to lift you up and carry you through the next day.

I'm on the 3rd day of a no-coffee, no-alcohol, go-to-sleep-on-time week.  I'm limiting refined sugar, not having any deserts, and keeping away from red meat as well.  Hoping to get more in touch with my body's un-influenced energy cycle and see to what extent my energy is chem-dependent currently.

I like coffee and I like a beer after work, so I doubt this will last forever.  The idea is to question the role of unintentional habits of consumption in my life -- especially those that might give me "false" impressions of rest and wakefulness.

In place of those beverages, I'm having one bottle of Kombucha, which I was just recently introduced to, each day.  I'm still buying it bottled at the supermarket, usually "GT's" brand, in part because I'm still new to and a little wary of home fermentation and probiotics, in part because I don't know how temporary my home here is (1 month or 6 months....), and mostly because I don't have much space and haven't found a person to get a "Kombucha mama" from.

They taste a little fruity, fairly sour, a little carbonated, fairly vinegar-y.   I like the idea of Kombucha as much or more than I like the actual beverage.

For more information on Kombucha, see http://thegreenest.net/tag/kombucha-brooklyn/