Today is a fifth Thursday and fifth Thursdays have become very important to me.
See a few years ago I thought my dad was about to die, we had the "your a good dad, and I love you" talk, and as John Mayer tells us, "I said what I needed to say"
But Dad didn't die, which is ultimately a really good thing, but also kind of an awkward thing, after having that talk next to his hospital bed.
He recovered, we returned home, and we all tried to go back to life as normal. But a few weeks later I realized I wasn't normal any more. There was something missing, like the gas in my tank was low and I was running on fumes.
My soul felt heavy, my fuse felt short, my dreams felt flat and my hopes felt lost.
And that was when I discovered 5th Thursdays.
My friend Mike saw the wear on my face and told me I needed a soul care day. A day to pause, to breath, to rest, to do whatever it takes to fill me up.
And to not simply run from moment to moment, crisis to crisis, season to season.
But to pause, breath and refill. And that's when this practice began.
Every 5th Thursday, the day is blocked, the meetings postponed, the emails ignored and the focus is placed squarely on me, my soul, my heart, my health.
I was reminded recently that if you wait to drink when you're thirsty you're already dehydrated. But leaders often don't rest, recharge, care for themselves until they're worn out, exhausted, running on fumes and dangerously close to making permanent mistakes with lasting consequences.
So today, today was a good day, because today was a 5th Thursday, today was a pause day.
I enjoyed a slow lunch with a good book. A walk around a new favorite square. A street taco just for kicks. A guilt free nap. Hours in a good book, and now a few moments of writing, refreshing, remembering that it's from the heart that life flows and it's the wise who pause to refill before its too late.
So here's to great 5th Thursdays.
Here's to drinking before you’re thirsty.
Here's to pausing to care for ourselves so we can then un-pause and keep running the race set before us.
I really do hope you find your 5th Thursday, your pause, your refill, not just for your sake, but for the sake of everyone your life touches, cause you matter, your influence matters, and I want the world to see your best self, not your exhausted self. We need you to be the best you.
