Because, by the end of the semester, despite best intentions, we are tired to depths that don’t have words.
Because that tiredness separates us from ourselves and from our loved ones.
Because we need to tend to our own selves.
Because we want to tend to our loved ones, be they babies, beloveds, books, or all the above and beyond that ad infinitum.
Because we need bike rides, and walks with our dear ones.
Because it is nearly picnic season.
Because that damn conference paper needs writing.
Because soon the lakes will be warm and the ocean swimmable.
Because we may have accidentally, again, neglected self-care.
Because sometimes, for some of us, a wild panic sets in, and that panic needs listening to, and quelling.
Because we have not had wine on a patio without feeling guilty.
Because despite feminism, we feel guilty.
Because administrative work wears us down.
Because precarity wears us down.
Because finishing dissertation writing is difficult, necessary, and energy-consuming.
Because Sunday brunch.
Because sometimes we need rest, and we forget that we need rest.
Because we want to come back stronger, more articulate, more focussed, for ourselves and for you, our readers.
Because we deserve it.
Because we want to remember we love our thinking selves.
Because we want to fall in love with writing again, or keep that wild love burning bravely.
Because self-care is, as Audre Lorde writes, warfare, and we live and work in a neoliberal patriarchal culture that does not want us to take care of ourselves or each other.
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We will be on self-care sabbatical until August, dear readers. Take care of yourselves and we will too.
Pitches, guest posts, and the like can be sent to Erin Wunker at Gmail.
Hook & Eye 