Welcome to the Gathering Pod, the audio version of my weekly gathering room broadcast. I'm Martha Beck.

This morning, I woke up and I thought this is going to be the greatest day ever because I have a pretty busy Sunday planned tomorrow, but today is Saturday, and I don't have anything on

today. I am just going to roll about in my pajamas, and I'm going to like play computer solitaire

and other things that are thrilling to me since the pandemic began. I just thought,

ah, it's going to be the greatest empty day, because I've got a lot to do on Sunday. And then

I looked at my phone to check my happenings for the day and found that Saturday just went by,

and it's Sunday. Has that ever happened to you? Have you

lost today? This is the high point of my Sunday, but I had a lot of things to do today. So I had this,

I was set in one direction. Er, law of inertia, inertia, a body when put in motion must remain in motion, will remain in motion until acted on

by an equal and opposite force. Well, the equal and opposite force hit me. I was cruising into

the happiest day ever and wham, lost a whole day. On the other hand, I know somebody who

lost a whole year. She thought she was a certain age and her parents came for her birthday and told her she was a whole day. On the other hand, I know somebody who lost a whole year. She thought she was a certain

age and her parents came for her birthday and told her she was a year older than she had thought.

So at least I only lost a day, but here's what I did. I thought, no worries. I can gird up and

like head into a busy day when I was expecting not to do anything at all. It's okay.

And then I started going to my loved ones and saying, hey, let's make New Year's resolutions to work harder.

And they became surly and depressed. And then I became surly and depressed because I was counting on them to pep me up after my shock and all.

Not shock and all, shock and all.

And then I just thought everybody was hostile and surly and miserable.

And I thought, it's time for a break.

And then I thought, you know, when the gathering room comes, I'm going to tell them about breaks.

Because very few people take real breaks. And the holiday season is a travesty of pseudo breaks. It's supposed to be a

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