The Week That Was And Is

Vacation is officially over but my thoughts still linger on that golden time. As promised in last week’s column we didn’t take the entire house with us. We took a lot of stuff but not the entire house. Because we had less stuff, it was far more productive in terms of rest, relaxation, and fun.

The week began, with a sense of timelessness. It was stretching out ahead of us, like a lazy rolling river, slowly flowing away into the distant mist of the horizon. Tomorrow was “out there” somewhere. But we were right here, right now. River’s end would get here in its own good time. Today was all that counted. I get it that a week is still (and will always be) seven days, but living in the moment sure makes it seem eternal. Maybe heaven is something just like that. If you live in the moment it is eternal. It’s amazing how the “important” busy stuff of “real” life falls away in that timeless sense and yet how much value is gained from letting it go for a season.

Not that it was all just sitting around and doing nothing. There were important things to do – such as reading, walking (slowly enough to enjoy the flowers), kayaking (slowly enough to enjoy the changing shoreline), and sitting with friends, sipping that ever-present pot of coffee (slowly enough to enjoy their life stories).

Somewhere, in the back of my mind I knew there was a world out there – a world of politics, programs, and pressure, but I also suspected it would still be there in a week. When we returned home my suspicions were confirmed. Nothing of any real value had changed – except me. Perhaps not as much as I want, but enough to know that it’s the simple things of life that bring the most pleasure and reward. It always has been and it always will be that way. That’s what makes a good vacation, good!

Can we be busy while on vacation? Absolutely! In fact, I think we should be. But that busy-ness should be the kind that produces peace and rest, not just more of the same hectic racing we find in the working world. Far too often we try to keep a schedule that is similar in pace to the one we left. It defeats the reason we needed to get away in the first place. And so, we chose to become un-American in our vacation lifestyle.

We have friends who would be bored to tears with our vacation. They choose to fill their time with many and varying pursuits. That’s OK, because we also have friends who laughed themselves to tears with our vacation as we enjoyed the timeless friendships. My vacation is not my bucket list. In fact, I don’t want to live with the need for a bucket list, and certainly not while on vacation.

It is to that end that I aspire. Rather than spend a small fortune on external things to make me happy, such as theme parks and RVs, I have decided that I want to try to be my own theme park and my own RV. I want to enjoy the moment with friends…everyday. That way, wherever I go – even in the working real world, there can be that sense of timelessness stretching out ahead of me, like a lazy rolling river, slowly flowing away into the distant mist of the horizon – an eternal vacation.