I’m back from my Mexican siesta! It will take me some time to reacclimate and dig out from email and snail mail for sure but first I am going to share a lesson or two I learned from my trip.
As a self-employed working parent who is very involved in her community I am ALWAYS on the go. From the moment I wake up until the moment I fall askeep, someone or something needs or wants my attention. And yes, this includes the shows I have taped and stacked up on my DVR waiting to be watched. Thank goodness for Tivo!
In general I tend to be a very scheduled person who thrives on the chaos of my day. After all, I do have control over the things I say “Yes” to and know I do it to myself. While I may be deficient in the “No” gene arena, I am passionate about certain things and then work to fit them in. What’s the saying, “Want something done? Ask a busy person”. I fit that to my detriment sometimes. Anyone else relate?
Between my businesses, kid and family schedules, and volunteer efforts downtime is rare. So, we schedule vacation time and that gives me something to look forward to.
Obeservation #1: I could survive without constant connection!
I am usually fine when we travel somewhere and I have access to the internet to keep up with things. Well, heading to Mexico for a week panicked me – even though I knew I needed it. I was going off the grid and while I was excited, I was nervous.
As it turns out for an entire week I was 95% off the grid. The other 5% was spent calling the kids from Skype (through the internet), which then allowed me a few minutes a day to scan emails and manage for any crisis. For 15 minutes a day I was able to keep in contact with the outside world from my iPhone and that was all I needed. No crisis and all was well.
Observation #2: Boredom rocks!
The sun was great and my pool chair was aweseome. I devoured as much chips, salsa, and shrimp as I could in a week and life was grand.
About day 4 I declared to my husband that I was flat out bored. BORED! I couldn’t remember the last time or in how many years I have ever been bored! I had read 4 magazines and 5 books by this point and had spend a few hours in the Spa. I didn’t know what to do with myself so in the forthcoming 24 hours I ended up sleeping about 16 of them. (This included about 10 hours of evening sleep and 3 naps of about 2 hours each). I remembered what it was like to just be. And then like a bolt of lightning a bunch of creative thoughts came my way. It was as though I had cleared the way for my brain to tell me what was pushed aside by the day to day processing.
I am back and ready to rock and roll for the rest of 2010. I’ve got some items I want to share with you about and I’d like to hear what you’d like to know more about as well and I’m looking forward to it!
And don’t be surprised if I hang the “gone fishing” sign up now and again now that I’ve remembered why vacations are good!
VaNessa