Sometimes, I Just Need a Holiday!

Sadly, the title of this post does not mean that I get to go on holiday... even though I feel like I could use a holiday!

I find myself having these thoughts not so much because I feel overworked, as for the fact that I am getting increasingly sick and tired of so many things in our world not working the way they are intended.

For example, for the past three days I have been wrestling with Amazon because I have a "seller account" there to sell my artwork on their "Handmade" site.

I've had my account for eight years, but the simple request to follow up on updating my credit card on file set of a cascade of failures that has resulted in now two support tickets working... because a bug in the code of one of their relatively obscure pages causes repeated failure... but nobody's willing to own up to the fact that it's actually an Amazon problem, rather than a seller problem... no matter how much supporting documentation I present.

Things like that really makes me just want to get away from the world!

What also wears on my life — not just currently, but for most of my life — is the pervasive realization that working hard and doing your best is not actually enough to result in success. In fact, it's often the inferior and mundane that rises to the top, more as a result of being annoying and/or just plain lucky... than by skill and dedication.

Again, makes me want to just throw in the towel and declare "why do I even bother?"

Of course, the answer to that last question is that I "bother" because I don't want to just become part of what I see as a problem in the world, I want to present a solution.

Can't say for sure that anybody cares, mind you...

Speaking of holidays, sometimes I wonder whether being born in Denmark and growing up in various parts of Western Europe has made me genetically inclined to feel like having several weeks of holiday every year is both natural and healthy.

Here in the USA, you're basically lucky if you actually get to take two weeks of holiday per year... although I suppose you could "take" the (unpaid, of course) time off... although that would put you at risk of coming back to discover that you no longer have a job.

Yes, that's often how things work, here. Sad, isn't it?

It's one of the things about the USA that I have never really been able to come to terms with. Small wonder that so many people here end up feeling burned out...

Sadly, there's going to be no holiday for me, anytime in the foreseeable future. By which I mean years, not just weeks or months.

Whatever moments I am not actually working at making a living will be spent on organizing and getting our house ready to move, sometime in mid-2026. Yes, we have made the final decision to move somewhere smaller... the "purpose" with which we chose this larger property as our home has pretty much played out, and it feels more like work than happiness to be here.

And that's an indication that "it is time."

We have not yet decided whether we'll buy a smaller place and move there, or buy a small piece of land and put up a "kit home" there, which is often far more affordable than buying a property off the market.

Time will tell. If only the crypto markets would have another bull run over the next 18 months or so, we might have a little more headroom/freedom to do what we want.

Time will tell...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!

How about you? How often do you take a holiday? Does your country typically have a decent amount of holiday per year? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2024.09.20 00:27 PDT
x850/2084