What Day Is It?

Vacation.

Isn’t it a great word?

Although it’s a verb, the word vacation doesn’t evoke action to me.  When I hear the word vacation I think about the air being let out of a balloon.  Or exhaling slowly.

I am in vacation right now and I feel blessed to be having one.  I am off-schedule, under the radar and very much unplugged, living in an alternate universe of sleeping in, eating and reading books whenever I want and not knowing what time it is.

Or even what day it is.  I haven't turned on the television in days.  What a surprise it was to log on to the internet and discover today is the first day of August!  

I work hard and enjoy working hard but at a certain point everyone needs to take a break from their daily routine and enjoy themselves.

As one of my friends said as we set up everything on the beach, “I didn’t think I needed a vacation until I got here.  Now I realize how much I needed one!”

Even writing this post is a stretch for me because my brain is resisting complete thoughts.

I hope everyone has the opportunity this summer to rest, relax and refresh!!

You deserve it!

Resting Your Mind

 

The older I get, the more I find the below quote to be true.

 

  What do you think?

 

 

Photo Courtesy of French Essence

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."

                                  ~William James

                                     The Principles of Psychology

Aer Lingus -- Take Us Away

Ireland's Scenic Coastline

You know when you discover something for yourself and you can't wait to share it with your friends?

Well, that's the way I feel about Ireland.

I haven't been back to Ireland for years but I will never forget the trip that I made with my husband.  Fantastic and magical from beginning to end.  I was very sad to leave.

And now one of my sisters and her husband are flying to Ireland today and I'm so envious!

 

I am also excited for them for I know that once they land in Dublin tomorrow they will forget about the daily grind of life here and fall into the more relaxed and civilized way of life in Ireland, marked by the most delicious brown bread in the whole wide world and the freshest salmon.  The Guinness and the Smithwick's tastes better in Ireland too!

I wish them a safe and romantic trip in the land of the green as they discover the incredible mix of history, beauty, creativity and Ireland's best resource: its people!  I don't think my sister and her husband will travel through Ireland as quickly as this video shows but I'm sure the scenic beauty will stay with you and them for a long time.  Watch and see:

Life Is Better At The Beach

I listen to the ocean waves as they continuously break on the shore and happily feel the sun's warm rays melt the tangle of stress webs in my brain and body and I know for sure that the beach is a magical place!!! 

The sign pictured below is not a cliche.  It's the absolute salty and sandy truth!

Temporarily Off The Grid -- Vacation

Go Go's Album Cover Featuring the hit song "Vacation"

Vacation

All I ever wanted

Vacation

Had to get away. . .

Vacation lyrics by: Kathy Valentine/Charlotte Caffey/Jane Wiedlin

Having been in the workforce for decades, I am familiar with watching people work themselves sick.  Literally.

I believe in hard work but I also believe in vacations. . . BIG TIME!  You can't work hard unless you take breaks and allow yourself some healing and recharging space.  Vacations aren't luxuries.  They are very necessary for helping you live longer.  Even if you don't go anywhere, you deserve unscheduled time away from the office and at least an at-home Staycation, enjoying relaxation in your home with lots of sleeping in, having lunch or dinner with friends and family, reading, gardening or exercising.

But you cannot play chicken in the office with your fellow colleagues and see who works the longest day and who can go the longest without a vacation.  Eventually the consequences of that behavior will catch up with you.

Here's one of many reasons why:  when researchers from the State University of New York at Oswego recently released a survey it conducted of 12,000 men ages 35-57, they found that those who didn't take at least one week long vacation per year boosted their risk of dying from heart disease by 30% during the course of the nine-year study (please see link to study below).

I am going on vacation today and as much as love my readers and Cry, Laugh, Heal, I need to take a break and enjoy some down time at the beach with my son and my friends.  My intention is to post a few times while at the beach but I'm not sure. . .and I hope you understand!

Here's the link to the MSNBC story about the study concerning work and stress:

http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/27/12951646-your-stressful-job-is-indeed-aging-you-study-confirms?lite?ocid=twitter

Summer's Journey

Usually by this time of the year, I have committed to the dates for taking a vacation with my son.  But this year is different.

Now that my son has graduated from college and started his new paying job (love to be able to say paying job), we both are pretty sure that the rest of the summer will be different from other summers.  Since he isn't living at home and his job requires him to work on Saturdays, it's a pretty good bet that our usual August vacation isn't going to happen.

But we are trying hard to make some variation of past vacations happen this year.  So right now there is a lot of negotiation going on about the when and where and that's okay.  Every family reaches this fork in the road when their children don't spend the whole vacation or any vacation time with them and it's not the end of the world.  I knew this day would arrive, I just didn't think about it very much.

For me, it is one more step in building a life that is different from the one that I had when my husband was alive.  Vacations were automatic.  Setting up our annual vacation followed the same timetable every year and it fell into a comfortable pattern.

Now, once again, endings become beginnings and I am learning the value of moving on and doing something different.  It's part of rebuilding your life and when you face it positively, good and unexpected things can happen.

I do believe there is a certain rhythm to life and that certain changes present themselves at certain times.  Life doesn't happen the way we always want it to happen to us but that's life.  It's the beginning of a new chapter, a chapter in which I think staying flexible and having faith is key.

It can be a bit of a tricky place but trying to take one day at a time has always served me well.

Right now, vacation is my priority.  I need a vacation and we'll figure this out.  I don't want to vacate (as in vay-kay, road trip) by myself but I definitely want some time with others at the beach.  It's possible that my son may be able join me for a few days but not the whole week.   Between my wonderful son and my great friends,  I will figure out a some well needed time off from work.

I also remind myself that I am lucky to be able to take a vacation and I am grateful to be in a position to take some time off and relax among people I love.  As Greg Anderson, the founder and president of the American Wellness Project, says, social wellness means more than simply belonging.  It means getting along with others. . . and cultivating caring, supportive relationships. 
   

Are we there yet?

The Beach Is The Best



Photo By Emily Noonan


My son and I vacation at Bethany Beach, the same beach we have been enjoying since he was a toddler.  It's also the same beach where I vacationed as a child.  This conjures up all sorts of memories for both of us and it gives my son a sense of stability.  We can't imagine going anywhere else. 

The first time we vacationed in Bethany after my husband's death, it was jarring, but we stayed positive and survived.  I had some meltdowns but they were in private.  More importantly, keeping up the vacation tradition gave us confidence to know that we could go to a special place on our own and then get on the other side of the experience and be okay.  It wasn't the way it used to be, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be either.

The beach is also a time to catch up with old friends because we always plan to be at the beach when our friends and their children are also vacationing.  Of course we see our friends when we're home but there are less distractions at the beach and conversations are uninterrupted.  All of the children are mostly around my son's age and they all have a great time when they are together.  The group of us have been vacationing in Bethany for so many years it's hard to count.  Everybody gives each other a lot of room so it's not as though we always do everything as a group and it is definitely understood that people are on vacation time.

We love Bethany Beach and tend to do the same things each year.  We just can't resist that magical formula of sun, sand and salt water that continuously mixes together and becomes some kind of relaxation elixir.  There is something heavenly about sitting in your beach chair (under the umbrella, of course) reading a book, listening to the waves hit the beach over and over that is relaxing, refreshing and soothing to the soul.


Photo By Emily Noonan

All of us like to do the same things so it works out very well.  Basically, we hang out on the beach all day (even if it's overcast), read books (trashy and brainy), eat vacation food (think french fries, steamed crabs, pizza, steak and cheese and ice cream), go to Funland (Paratrooper, The Sea Dragon), play putt-putt (Golf Down Under, Lost Treasure) and shop (anywhere within walking distance).  These activities never get boring to us because we don't do a lot of them when we're home.

Photo By Emily Noonan

This year a new restaurant opened called Matt's Fish Camp.  It's located in an old steak and cheese carry-out place near Indian River Inlet.  It doesn't look like the old place at all which was a typical beach carryout place where most of your customers drive up in bathing suits or carry fishing poles and order food that's really great for elevating your blood pressure and raising your cholesterol levels.

We all tried it for lunch and dinner and loved it!  The new place is very nice, has great service and really tasty food.  The decor is simple with tables, booths, white walls and simple ocean photographs.  Plus the prices are reasonable which is a big help in these tight economic times. 



Photo By About My Beaches

But all of this talk about Matt's cracked me up because I think of the old place where Matt's is now located as an inside joke between my husband and I which was known as "white cheese, yellow cheese."  Everytime my husband and I would drive by it, the first one who would see it would say, "white cheese, yellow cheese."  This quirky phrase came about because one afternoon we drove up for steak and cheese subs.  When my turn came, I gave my order to a young girl chewing a big wad of gum behind the counter.  Without missing a beat she said, "Do ya want white cheese or yellah cheese?"  I started laughing and said, "What do you mean?"  With a straight face, she repeated, "Whadda you whant white cheese or yellah cheese on your sub?"

I thought about it for a minute and said "Do you mean Provolone or American cheese?  Then she looked at me and made a weird face.  "No, I mean do ya want white cheese or yellah cheese?"  This is probably one of the reasons I stopped eating steak and cheese subs shortly after this episode.  I decided to answer her in her language and said, "Two with white cheese, please."

Later when my husband was eating his sub, I asked him if he liked his sub with white cheese.  "What are you talking about?  he asked.  I told him about the counter girl inside and he laughed for a really long time.  This "white cheese, yellow cheese" phrase became part of our beach code, one of those unspoken things that you just say to each other and you both get it right away. 



Photo By Emily Noonan

This is not to take anything away from Matt's.  It's definitely a great place and we would recommend it.  This story is more to explain that this summer we discovered a truth which is that places change and people leave us but through it all we find continuity in life's experiences and the sweet memories of those special times.