The Invisible Black Woman

The world will keep spinning. The work will still be there. The people who truly need you will still love you when you return.

But you? You can’t keep running without refilling.

We live in a culture that treats exhaustion like excellence and busyness like proof of worth. Somewhere along the line, we started believing that if we’re not constantly producing, we’re somehow falling behind. So we work through the ache, power through the headache, smile through the fatigue… then wonder why we feel disconnected from joy.

But rest was never the enemy of progress. It’s the engine.

“Today, rest like the world can wait” is your reminder that you don’t have to earn the pause. You don’t have to justify taking time for yourself. The world’s pace is not your responsibility.

We’ve been carrying generations of unspoken expectation—to hold everything and everyone together, to keep showing up, to never drop the ball. We’ve been told that our strength is our crown, even when that crown has turned into a shackle.

But there is power in setting it down.

Rest is resistance. It’s the refusal to be consumed. It’s how we repair what the grind has tried to break. When you rest, you remind the world that your body and your brilliance are not public property. You reclaim your time, your joy, and your right to breathe without permission.

So today, rest like the world can wait.

Let the phone ring. Let the inbox fill. Let the group chat go unanswered. The world will find its balance while you find yours.

You don’t have to fill every silence. You don’t have to fix every gap. You don’t have to be “on” to be valuable.

Sit in stillness. Stretch. Breathe. Be. Listen to your own pulse. Feel your body existing without demand. That’s where healing begins, when you let yourself be human again.

And if guilt tries to creep in, remind yourself: this pause is not a privilege, it’s a necessity. Every system that has tried to survive on your exhaustion will have to learn to function without it.

Because when you rest, you are not falling behind. You are catching up to yourself.

Your peace is not a luxury item. It’s a birthright.

So close the laptop. Turn off the noise. Let the day unfold without a single expectation.

Today, rest like the world can wait—because it can, and it should.

And when you return tomorrow, return softer, clearer, and more yourself than you’ve felt all week.

Until next time, I wish you nothing but sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns, which are no less fictitious than the rested creature you are.