Supernatural

I just got back from a three and a half week vacation. For those thinking of taking a month-long vacation, I have one thing to say to you: DO. It's amazing. In the past week, after returning and being catapulted back into real life, I've been thinking a lot about the significant difference between vacation and real life and how it doesn't really make sense for it to be so noticeable. There's a different mentality to vacation, obviously, partially due to a usual change in location. But it's definitely more than that. It's time for self. Permission to do nothing. Deeper breaths. So the question is, why can't we feel that way in real life too? I mean, it seems like a much more sustainable way to live to create a "real life" that doesn't require some dramatic departure in order to reconnect with feeling good.

I think so much of the shear joy and deep relaxation I felt while away was connected to the fact that I wasn't anywhere near a city...so that's something to think about. While in downeast Maine on the front end of my trip I spent some time with a dear, dear friend on her family's land in what is basically the easternmost part of the county. It's appropriately named Racepoint (even on some maps) because the water rushes in and out of the bay it sits on at incredible speeds due to the fact that the tides have a 25 foot vertical variance. That's a whole lot of water rushing in and out every 12 hours, let me tell you. Other than the bay, there was no running water. And the stars...oh, the stars!! One night we brought our sleeping bags into the meadow to lay and look at sky before the moon rose and decided, after about two hours, that we should just sleep out there. In the morning an eagle flew over us so close we could hear its wings flapping. I kept saying "this is like magic," until I thought about how completely insane it is to think about nature untouched by humans as supernatural. Clearly I've been a city-dweller for too long. I mean, it is SUPER natural. But magic? Puh-lease! A Vermonter should know better. Regardless, it has inspired me to try to work out a better city/nature ratio in order to maintain a more enjoyable real life.

So, that's the new goal: vacation-inspired living. More reading, more drawing, more relaxation, more breathing, and most importantly, way more "magic".

vacation sketchbook