I don’t know what to do.
Well, I do know. Laundry is calling my name {after a vacation to the lake laundry for a family of nine is a beast of its own}. So it unpacking. Lawn mowing. Garden weeding. Garage cleaning. Grocery Shopping. Emails {another beast}. Vacuuming out all of the sand sitting everywhere. Putting the fishing rods away. Sigh.
I miss the lake.
I miss the freedom that was to be found at the lake. The freedom to wander down to my parent’s cabin with my wind swept frizzy hair and sit at their table and drink coffee and talk to my dad without having to worry how many emails were sitting in my inbox. You see, on this vacation, the digital world was literally taken from us – no power equals no internet equals no smart phones charging. It was freeing.
As I drove home, with a vehicle stuffed with items that were no longer organized so nicely as they were a week prior I pondered how to keep the freedom feeling from the lake and to yet do life without the frenzy feeling. I want family first. Yet, I know that the world we live in {unless I choose to live cut off from the grid in Northern Minnesota} is fast paced, busy, and full of urgent things to do. I know that I can’t reclaim that absolute freedom feeling that was earned on a week of vacation. But, I can learn to adjust my idea of urgent.
I can learn to grab moments of freedom with my family. Carve out game nights, and fun meals, find time to take those walks that were all too often told in a minute but didn’t come — maybe it’s a further embracing of finding the good, the joy, in the midst of the everyday. Leaving for a bit made me realize just how frenzied and busy I live and how I allowed too many things to be defined as urgent. Vacations allow for margin, for space in an energy-filled life, that allows one to reexamine the real importants. Returning makes me realize how I want to be even more intentional with my time.
I can’t recreate the freedom of a vacation but I can choose to live different. I can adjust the urgent and can create and cultivate space within life.
Live intentional.
Live awake.
Live grateful.
Live laughing.
Live.
Really truly live. That’s what I learned.
Again.
7 comments
I can absolutely relate! The blessing I have come to take hold of, are the many heads in my family to delegate those “to do’s” with. I just have to accept that the job done won’t be exactly to my desire, but its done, and one less thing for me to claim as mine. I trend to feel like my family should be resting while I “do”…then I find myself beginning frustrated or resentful as they kick their feet up while I’m doing what needs to be done. If I say nothing, I only have me to blame for my feeling overwhelmed.
I saw your list in the blog. The more you delegate, the sooner the family can enjoy each other.
Although, its the sooner mine can run of with friends now 😉
Thanks for sharing!!
Amen! Time to unplug and spend more time with the people around us.
Thank you for the reminder to just live. I forget to laugh, therefore fail to really live. So thanks, I needed to hear that. So glad your vacation was all you needed it to be. Treasure those moments with your parents!
Rachel,
Thank you for this post. We are discussing our vacation this summer and really wanting it to be all that you have described…I also want us to return desiring to live with more intentionally, more awake, more grateful and with lots and lots of laughter. All those thoughts that you described as you drove home and returned….all the things NEEDING to be done after a vacation feel so overwhelming, but if we adjust our thinking, then all of that joy that was found while away will be worth it. Thank you so much for reminding me of what time away with my family can do for us. I pray that I will come home refreshed, renewed and ready to embrace this life even more fully.
Thank you my friend,
Megan
Great post! I can’t even begin to imagine how you keep up with a family of 9! It can be so hard to find that balance at times…I tend to be “all or nothing” at times.
Praying!
Romans 5:1-4 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
My email address
That is a beautiful idea. I struggle with that very concept all the time. We are about to go on a travel heavy vacation where the Internet may or may not be available when we stop. I am actually really looking forward to it. I will still have my notebook to write in because that is who I am, but I am going to give the Internet a break. It is nice not worrying about all the extra hustle and bustle of life. However, if we live in the world, which we most definitely do, it is inevitable. I can already tell I am beginning to pull away from technology. (Though it is amazing how many power cords and electronic we pack now).