The miracle of a vacation

Ummm….let me see……I’m trying to figure out how long it has been since I’ve taken an honest-to-goodness full day off………

Last summer I got into a bad habit – I needed a distraction and I threw myself into work full-throttle.  The work wasn’t bad – in fact, it was an extremely productive time. The problem was that I got into the habit of never shutting it down.  I’d get up full of ideas early in the morning and I wouldn’t stop until I’d exhausted myself late at night. It didn’t help that I work from home, so very often I wouldn’t leave my chair, let alone my apartment. As time went on and my heart healed, I no longer needed the solace of work, but the pattern was set.

In the last few months I’ve been more careful about getting out of the apartment – sometimes for a mid-day walk, sometimes for an evening out with friends. But my mind keeps going.  Even on the weekends – or other days off that I set for myself – my mind is always on hyper-drive, figuring out the next phone call to make or the next email to write that will bring the military workshops closer to reality. Or I’ll be mentally fixated on how exactly to get the footer on some client’s website to show up properly. I’d sit down at my computer to do “one little thing” and two hours later, I’d be deeply enmeshed in a work project. My mind rejected the idea of taking a break and just allowing myself to have fun.

UNTIL TODAY!

I’m going to take a class that I’m super-excited about and that I know will be a lot of fun. I’m going to see friends who I’m even more super-excited to see. I’m going to a city I’ve never been to before. It is my intention to allow myself a few days OFF!  Completely and utterly OFF.

Earlier this evening I was talking to my coach about this journey and she reminded me that it’s actually a vacation. What a delightful word – vacation.  Hallelujah!

I’m immensely grateful to have the opportunity to go away for a little while and do something fun – see new people, learn new things, have new experiences. No matter what happens while I’m gone, it is the beginning of a brand new pattern.  And I say again, hallelujah!

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My posts over the next week may be somewhat sporadic. We’ll see. This journal isn’t like work, but I also don’t want to tie myself to any commitments while I’m gone. I will still be watching for miracles! If you’d like to be notified when I post new miracles, sign up in the box to the left.  Talk to you soon!