Stick a fork in me – I’m done.  Am I exhausted?  Stressed?  Try depleted.  Like many of you, I’ve been working late nearly every night.  When I get home I’m tired and hungry.  My evening is deemed a success if my dinner goes beyond scrambled eggs, everything gets organized for the morning, and I’ve caught the 10:30 pm weather report.

This month’s issues of Marie Claire, Food Network Magazine, and MORE are waiting to be read; a neat stack of books on my coffee table including Adriana Trigiani’s latest, “All the Stars in the Heavens,” and Mary Karr’s memoir “Lit,” are temping me.  But keeping up with my reading has been challenging of late.

Last week, an out-of-town friend texted me:  MISS U…PHONE APT NEXT WED NITE?  Since when does a phone call need to be scheduled?  And how did we get so busy that dinner with an upstairs neighbor is not possible until the last week of April?

Our lives are cluttered.  The rushing around, I don’t mind so much.  Despite my many years in Boston, I’m still a New Yorker at heart.  What I miss is the time and the quiet needed for meaningful contemplation.  Decompression from the work day takes place on the noisy, bumpy bus ride home.  Thinking and planning occurs in the shower.  And it’s just me.  How on earth do the moms do it?  They deserve Superman capes!

It’s no wonder we’re all addicted to coffee.  But caffeine can only do so much when you’re depleted.   It’s time for a dose of something that can really heal me.

In a few weeks, I’ll be going on retreat, returning to a welcoming old house by the sea.  I know my weekend at the ocean will be restorative.  And the spiritual renewal will lift me.  The tranquility of the retreat will be the shot in the arm I need.  Until then, I’ll have to settle for another cup of joe.