A Not-So-Normal Friday

Today didn’t look anything like my usual Friday and maybe that’s the part that saved me.

Instead of pushing through a to-do list or rushing into the next thing, I chose something different. Lunch with my bestie. An iced coffee that tasted like summer. And then, without planning it, we found ourselves by the water my favourite kind of therapy.

The pōhutukawa are blooming right now… those bright red petals that feel like New Zealand’s heartbeat this time of year. It’s impossible not to pause and stare for a moment, as if nature is quietly saying, “You’ve made it through another year.”

There was free music playing in the background, the kind of chilled acoustic set that you don’t realize you needed until you hear it. And without even thinking, I did something I haven’t done in decades…

I lay down under the tree.

Just like when I was a kid listening to the birds, watching the clouds, making stories out of the sky. No urgency. No noise. No expectations. Just presence.

And honestly after the week I’ve had, it was everything.

This week has been heavy emotionally, mentally, physically. Processing big changes, riding waves, I didn’t see coming, letting go of things and people I never thought I’d release. It’s been a growing week, but also a testing one.

And yet somehow life gifted me this small, perfect moment.

A reminder to breathe.

A reminder that rest is productive.

A reminder that joy doesn’t have to be grand or planned.

Sometimes healing looks like lying under a blooming pōhutukawa, letting the world soften around you.

Sometimes the body and the heart know exactly what you need long before the mind catches up.

Today was not my normal Friday.

But maybe it was exactly the kind of Friday I’ve been needing for a very long time.