Courtney Carver

Why Rest Must Be Chosen, Not Deferred

From here, relaxation shifts from indulgence to stewardship. Choosing a day to rest is a way of maintaining the instrument you rely on for everything else—thinking, caring, producing, and relating. This is especially relevant for people with caregiving roles or high-responsibility jobs, where personal depletion quickly spills into mistakes, impatience, or diminished judgment. Rather than seeing rest as time taken away from duties, the quote suggests rest protects your capacity to meet them. In practical terms, it’s similar to budgeting: regular small deposits prevent catastrophic deficits. [...]

Choosing No to Protect a Simpler Life

Once life gets crowded, the trade-offs appear in subtle places: rushed meals, postponed rest, fragmented attention, and relationships maintained by quick check-ins instead of real presence. Over time, that constant compression can make even meaningful commitments feel like burdens. In that light, “I don’t want to be busy” isn’t laziness; it’s a recognition of opportunity cost. Each added obligation consumes energy that could have gone to health, family, craft, or simply thinking clearly—resources that don’t replenish well under chronic hurry. [...]