I watched a special on John Lennon last night. John was talking about his time away from music, a time when he directed his energy toward raising his son, Sean. During this period, John said he did not pick up a guitar for  five years.

In his words, sometimes you need to “breathe in before you can breathe out.”

I took his words to mean that if you are a creator, someone who shares their thoughts and feelings with the world in some shape or fashion, that every now and again, you need to go inward, to be quiet, and to just focus on replenishing your energy.

You need to allow yourself the space to just breathe in.

I found his words particularly timely as I find myself in a similar space lately.

Perhaps it’s the impending arrival of my son. Perhaps its the summer. Perhaps its because for the last several months I’ve been intently focused on writing my book (it’s finished!), planning, and preparing to completely re-launch and re-brand my business in the early fall.

During this time, I’ve continued to write, create, and take photographs. But I have not felt the desire to breathe out and share much with the world. It’s felt more natural to just be quiet for a while and to keep my thoughts to myself.

I share these thoughts here now simply because it feels good to share them. I still suspect I need another few weeks of breathing in.

The larger point is that I found hearing Mr. Lennon’s words gave me a kind of permission that I was looking for — that not only is it okay to withdraw from time to time, it’s necessary. It’s natural.

I offer this as simply a reminder, just in case you needed to hear it like I did.

So, breathe in.

The world will still be waiting for you when you are ready to exhale.