Ologies with Alie Ward - Minisode: Dadward Takes a Break

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Listen, kids... give your father a break, okay?Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesSponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!Follow @Ologies on Twitter and InstagramFollow @AlieWard on Twitter and InstagramEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media and Mark David Christenson Transcripts by Emily White of The WordaryWebsite by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Oh, hey, it's your dad word here. Okay, we got good news and bad news, folks. Bad news. Let's just start with the bad news. It's not that bad, I'm fine. But the bad news is my pneumonia did not want to cooperate and I was back in the hospital for four days this past week and things were not great.

So that's the bad news. The bad news is I may be pushed a little bit when I should have been resting more. pneumonia is not to be fucked with and I found that out the hard way. My lungs are like, can you not? And I was like, what about? Hmm fine. So that's the bad news. Good news is I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine and I will be back on my feet soon. fine. I'm going to be fine and I will be back on my feet soon. The other good news is that her the recommendation of my doctors as well as a couple of very dear friends who sat me down with my husband. I've been urged to take a break, take a little bit of a vacation. I haven't gone on a vacation vacation or taken a break, got to a beach or anything in like over 10 years.

And oh, hey, quick aside here, this is your very pod mother here, aka pod mom, aka Jared sleeper, aka the wonderful love of my life's husband. Ali asked me to do this little aside. She got really anxious that she said to me, this is actually, people to show are gonna say, wait, this is inaccurate actually,

she took a trip to France, she did episodes about it, and therein lies the rub, okay. Ali turned that potential vacation into work. And that happens a lot. Also, there was kind of a family trip. And you know, we love my family. We love a family trip. But I think we can all agree family trips,

which we have taken some. Those can be, I would include those as labor to a certain, in terms of restful or restorativeness. Not for all of us, not for all of us. Some of you probably have wonderful families, but there you have it. That's the quick aside. She said, so that is true. And I'm going to tell you something right now as your mother, your father works very hard

for you. I'm going to sit you down in a scary way. Your father works very hard for you and loves you so much. And we just, we just got to give him a chance to Fuckin rat just let him feel that love. Okay. They're so precious to me. They're so perfect and I'm begging you Just show him that love send that healing energy She just she needs a damn rest. Oh She needs a damn rest. Oh, she needs a damn rest. Okay, all right, back to the love of my fucking life.

You know what I mean? Okay, thank you so much. I can't believe she made me do this, but there you go. I haven't gone on a vacation vacation or taken a break, got into a beach or anything in like over 10 years. And you know I love my work.

This podcast is my absolute dream job. It was something I wanted to do for years and years and the fact that it exists and I get to do it as a job is beyond my wildest dreams. And so it's really, really hard for me to say, how am I going to take a break? Because I love y'all. And this is such an incredible audience

for people that I've gotten to know and meet and I don't want to disappoint you, but I know that you're also very caring and compassionate and wonderful and that you care about me and that you love me back. And I know that you want me to be in better health. So I'm listening to the people who love me and I'm taking a break and I'm taking a little bit

of a reset so that I can a-heal my lungs and also so that I can just get a little bit of a reset so that I can a-heal my lungs and also so that I can just get a little bit more relaxed and recharged because I think what makes this podcast great is how much I love doing it and the enthusiasm and the curiosity and everything and burnout is not fun for you or for me. So I'm taking a break. I know I took a little bit of a break last summer when my dad passed away. I had a lot of funeral planning to do, helping my mom move, stuff like that. This is a little different.

This is for me. And so I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty scary. I care about how well the show does. I care about job security. I employ people. And again, I don't want to disappoint you. So it's tough to take a break because I'm afraid of losing everything that I've built.

But I have to just trust that you love the show because you love the show, and that you'll stick by me through maybe some encore episodes you've never heard. Maybe you want to read, listen to them again. Please share them with friends who maybe haven't heard in the first time. And when I come back, I'll be the same curious, goofy, weird me, but just with a little bit more brain energy. One of the things that I've learned

from doing this podcast is that y'all are here to learn and you do learn a lot. And we're friends. And so I feel like it's kind of a bad example if I'm burning out or exhausted or not taking breaks like a person should. That's not modeling good behavior. If I'm living in a massive scarcity mindset of being afraid to step away from work because I'll lose everything then what does that tell you?

And so part of doing this is also to model by example some healthy boundaries and to listen to my own body and brain and say, I'm really sick. I've been in the hospital. I need to just take a big deep breath, maybe go to the beach, literally turn my phone off for the first time in a decade, read some books, do a lot of journaling, and really get back to my voice and myself and who I am. So I'm doing this for me and hopefully for all of us. And if you're listening to this and you're feeling burned out or you're feeling like you're

prioritizing things that maybe aren't the healthiest for you, I hope that this is a sign to you to kind of take stock of that and really figure out, are you doing the best things for yourself? Are you doing things because you think you should or because you're scared to stop doing them? So, let my little journey with anxiety and putting work ahead of my health be a lesson to you. So when I come back, I'll be me, but just more me, which is what my friends and family and doctors

and hopefully y'all want. So the next few weeks have really, really good on-course and I've reached out to the guests who have become good friends now and obviously they want this for me too. So they're going to give you some updates in each of the on-course, what they're up to. And again, if you haven't listened, enjoy. If you have, listen again. And yeah, I'll be back in a few weeks with better lungs and an even happier brain. See you then. In the meantime, stick around, make sure you're subscribed, rate, review, all of that.

And I'm just gonna trust that this little house I built for all of us won't collapse while I'm away. All right? Okay. Off we go, bye bye. Just get well soon, okay?