CancElation (not a typo)

by Kay Scorah

CancElation is the name that I now give to that feeling of relief that I experience when I receive an email, a call or some other message saying, “I’m terribly sorry for the short notice, but I’m afraid that, because of (insert personal issue/administrative error/climate crisis/business crisis here) we have to cancel our (dinner party/meeting/conference/party/workshop)”.

Be honest, now – do you ever feel your breathing become deeper, your inner voice say “thank goodness” and your body relax as you delete that entry from your diary, make a cuppa (OK, pour a glass of wine) and look forward to a few hours of doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?  

Perhaps it is just me. But I doubt it.

What I have begun to enjoy recently is not replacing that diary entry with some *worthy, dutiful, creative or administrative task, but leaving the space empty but blocked; thus not allowing anything else to fill the space created by the cancElation.

And I ask myself: if I experience that feeling when someone else is in control of the cancellation, perhaps the universe is telling me to take control, and to say “no” now, rather to than dream of saying “thank goodness” at some time in the future.

*Which might explain why this blog is just 217 words long.

(My CancElation face below thanks to the fabulous Janet Gillespie. An inspiring human who knows how to make space.)