After Tropical Storm Ophelia whipped through the East Coast last weekend, it’s been one soupy mess outside here in New Jersey. But the temperature has dropped, to my surprise enjoyment. (I’m a true summer fan at heart.) I’ve gotten away with having my air conditioning units off and with wearing my favorite clothing combination: shorts and a sweatshirt. In a true effort to lean into fall, I even lit a fall-scented candle and pulled out my sweatshirt. Creature comforts, at their finest.

Has anyone else been inundated with way too much stuff to do recently? I make a plan, have a to-do list, and then bam – something else demands my attention and I’m able to accomplish a tenth of what I originally set out to do. It’s immensely frustrating, because like a million other people, I used to measure my worth by the amount of stuff I got done in a day. People would really ask me where I found the time and the energy and usually, it came easy to me. But it doesn’t, anymore. This life – and this chronic illness, post-cancer diagnosis identity – require me to reframe the question of what is it, really, that’s necessary to complete during a day.