Summer has arrived in full force, and I can feel a change of energy in the air! People are hustling and bustling, but it’s a different kind of busy than other times of the year. Kids are out of school, and people are making plans to travel and visit loved ones or sites that they have wanted to tour. Vacationers are making it happen.
There is something to be said about traveling at this time of year. Whether you pack for one night or ten or travel across town or thousands of miles, the anticipation of the trip is fun – or at least this is the perspective I try to keep when planning. I am not the planner I once was. Although I am as anal as they come, thank you to my father’s DNA, something shifted for me about five years ago, and now I wait until the last minute to book trips.
Thank you to the angels, my travel partners, who are kind and patient with me in this process of not having it all together and help with the planning of whatever trip I am taking. I would like to think that this allows them to share in my excitement, but I know that it can also be stressful. We try our best to minimize the stress by keeping it loose and free and know that there may be some things we aren’t able to do because of my lack of planning. But then there are things that we discover off the beaten path because we are going with the flow of the moment.
What I have come to learn is that vacation is truly defined in so many different ways. But the one aspect of the definition we all share is that we make space in our lives to break from the day to day of our normal routine. And if we stress in the planning or think that every minute needs to be filled with an activity, sight, tour or even friends and family chatting up the air space continually, we never really allow ourselves a break from the routine or busyness that we experience at home. This of course goes without saying: technology doesn’t need to be accessible!
I have noticed that people have forgotten what it’s like to be relaxed and unplugged. We rarely get lost in the moment of discovery by partaking in a walk-about. We rarely celebrate spontaneity and get everyone involved in perusing through Rick Steve’s travel book you pick up for the trip! Even if you cannot take a vacation this summer far from home, take a spur-of-the-moment stayca and book a night at a local hotel, go to dinner, take a walk, and have a nice breakfast in the morning. Maybe take a local yoga class you’ve never taken before or rent kayaks or bikes. No need to make things difficult – listen to what you need. And when you need a break, take it.
I will be taking a much-anticipated vacation with my daughter to unplug and celebrate the many milestones we have experienced together this year. Planned in four weeks with no set tours, this vacation has two travelers with a spirit of “Let’s just go for it and see what happens.” Stay tuned!
