I'm on vacation. Yet here I sit sticking to my writing routine. Vacation is the act of suspending your normal activities to do something else. That is the dictionary version of vacation.
My version of vacation … To me it's the act of balancing my life. I enjoy a less structured version of my time while on vacation. I enjoy not being expected to be anywhere. I enjoy being out of my normal environment so that I can experience a life of complete leisure.
Again the keyword is balance. I could not live this way. It would get dull. I would feel directionless and drifting. So vacation for me is like putting my regular life to sleep. Suspending my daily routine and resting from it. But it is essential that I go back to my daily life to feel useful and productive. To move forward with my life. That is how I achieve balance.
Vacation doesn't always mean a trip far from home. Sometimes just two days away from work can help you regain the balance you need.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I need a vacation after that vacation?” I think when you pack too much into your vacation, or you don't allow a transition time from an action packed vacation back to your daily routine, you lose the benefit of vacation.
I am vacationing in Hawaii this week. Visiting family and seeing my favorite spots on the Big Island. Truly a restful vacation. However, to fully enjoy the benefits of this rest, I will need to transition when I get back home. There will be cats to pay attention to, plants to tend and laundry to wash. I will need to pick up the reigns of my life and prepare to return to work. That is the transition time between vacation and daily life. It is necessary to ease back into my life to actually look forward to my daily routine. To return my mindset back to earning my living.
My day job is alright. I don't mind it. I don't dread it. I would prefer to write for my living, but for now the job I do suffices. It offers three weeks of vacation after all! At any rate taking vacation allows me to balance my life. To get up everyday and go to work knowing that at some point I will take a few days off and do something different.
The only question I have … when you retire, do you take a vacation from retirement by working a few days out of the year?
Ho! I could not agree more! It's as if you turned all the random ideas running through my own brain into a coherent piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteI liked reading this because you reminded me that there is value in every task and experience. When we give ourselves the time to discover the value we can make better decisions about whether it requires acceptance or change.
I'm glad it speaks to you. I try to write what I feel and sometimes what you feel doesn't always come out coherently ... I wrote this when I was staying at my maddahs house! ;0). That always helps.
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