Sometimes deadlines converge, which can be painful.  It feels like a series of approaching tidal waves that can’t be stopped.  This is a common sensation in schools around this time of year – with after-school duties, grades, meetings, report cards – and these are just our work responsibilities. 

How appropriate today is Easter, as for the last forty days I feel as though I have been wandering through the desert just trying to keep up.  Serendipitously, last night, just before midnight, I emailed the book I’ve been writing to my editor.  It is finished.  [I told my wife I assume the book writing process is somewhat like pregnancy.  Towards the end, I didn’t care what it looked like, I just needed it to be out of my body.]   Trying to balance teaching, presenting, writing, and sleeping was quite the challenge.

My takeaway?  Just as with air filling a balloon, if you don’t occasionally take a break and let the pressure out, you will explode.  For me, I do as much as I can, and then step away for brief periods to regroup and recoup my energy and sanity. 

Educators, with two months of school left, find ways to regularly open the valve and release.  Trust me, no one wants to see the result of pent-up crazy with nowhere to go.  It’s not a pretty sight.