Regular readers will remember my frustration with myself over my last stay-at-home vacation which seemed jam-packed with projects around the house. As much as I tried to fill my heart with the gratitude of having a nice home and the opportunity to do home improvement projects, I was left very tired and still needed a vacation after my vacation.
The reality is that after a few unusually tough years when mind, body and spirit didn’t have the energy to spare to turn a screwdriver or to declutter a drawer, the to-do list got pretty long. Fortunately, the energy and desire are back and ready to tackle the list, but there are only so many hours in a day to get to everything.
Just the same, when I think ahead to next year’s stay-at-home vacation, I have already committed to myself that every waking moment should not be filled with house projects. I want my vacation to be just that… a vacation!
To get to that point, I have made a commitment to myself that between now and then, I needed to find the time to knock one or two projects off the list each week. They just need to get done in small consistent increments.
When the prize is genuine unstructured play time, not spent with a paint roller in one hand and a drill in the other, I think this should be an easy resolution to keep rather than the old habit of deferring the projects to my vacation time.
So far, the plan seems to be working.
Which leads to the next question… So what do I want to do during the next stay-at-home vacation?
In exploring the concept of unstructured play time, I started letting my mind wander and to wonder what would make the best vacation ever.
It’s not that I was trying to plan my unstructured play time, but just to have a list of fun activities ready in my back pocket to make the most out of it, so that I don’t feel like it was a missed opportunity.
I took out an index card and started filling it with ideas of the sights, sounds and activities that would make it the most fun, most interesting and most relaxing time off.
The intent was not to create a bucket list. The ideas didn’t have to be elaborate or cost a lot of money. I just wanted a list of simple, meaningful ideas. With the knowledge that I shouldn’t have a long household to-do list hogging my vacation time, the possibilities were endless.
At the top of the list was time for writing, reading and running, the standards for each of my to-do lists, but the aim will be to fully enjoy them, in the moment, as opposed to in a rush, wedged between other activities as would typically happen in a work week.
To the list I added a few points of curiosity like checking out certain restaurants that have been recommended to me, returning to restaurants I would like to visit more often or to check out some museums I hadn’t seen in years.
Our region is filled with many beautiful waterfront parks and I just don’t seem to get out to as many of them as I would like. A few of those went on the list.
And without thinking about it too hard, the list quickly filled with other little rituals that I enjoy, like watching old movies with a big bowl of popcorn, digging my toes in the sand of a local beach, updating my musical playlists, baking (for the fun of it), enjoying a fancy cocktail (rather than ordering wine or beer at a restaurant), reading a “guilty pleasure” book, and any activity I enjoy where I might lose track of time.
When I took a step back, I realized that none of these ideas were hard to plan or nor were they hard to accomplish. They were just the simple pleasures that I truly enjoy but that seem to get lost in the shuffle of the week-to-week must-do list of cooking, cleaning and errands revolving around my work schedule.
That is when it hit me… if I enjoy these activities so much, why don’t I do them more often and why should I wait until the next vacation to make these happen? What a revelation!
Since then, I have been making time for at least one of these each week. It’s not always easy, but they aren’t terribly time consuming, nor are they expensive or difficult to organize. But because they are meaningful and fun to me, they are energizing activities that add to the joy of living.
If that’s the case, back to the original question, what will there be left to do during my stay-at-home vacation?
It is still intended to be unstructured play time, but by that time, choosing the simple pleasures to make the most of it will be second nature and will probably make it the best one yet!
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
