Vacations, planned and not planned

I have just returned from a long-awaited week on the beach in Varadero, Cuba.  It's our third trip to Cuba in as many years, and we've been planning to be there since last May. I knew I would need to disconnect for a week, to relax into the rhythms of resort life, and to gather energy for some big projects on the go in June.  I was more than ready for that vacation.

Ten days before I left, I took a different kind of vacation. My back went into spasms and I spent the better part of five days doing nothing more than managing my back. It's true that the problem was relatively well-timed and I had five days when the world could manage just fine without my thinking or writing much. I am grateful, because there are much worse ways to come to an abrupt halt. And it happens to everyone now and then. Without a plan (or reservations) we have to step out of our busy lives.

There is something to be gained, whether or not your break is intentional. Your perspective can be different and your habits can open room for change after you have been away. You can choose again, in a way that you are not aware of being able to choose while you rush from one commitment to the next.

I'm back now, and on the edge of several changes. I'm pushing through some big projects and thinking about changes to my work space and my working pace. I am building the energy and the intention to get back into shape after a winter of back problems; I am giving clearer shape to some goals; I am beginning to imagine. . . or to settle into imagining that started in the back of my mind while I was reading on the beach.


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