Our family had a lovely and restful vacation in Fripp Island, SC last week, so restful, in fact, that by Thursday, I was feeling a little twitchy. I guess the limit to my ability to relax is exactly one week.
I never imagined that I’d feel tired of vacation. Of course I loved every minute of our time at the beach—drinking coffee as the sun rose, walking the beach each morning, reading books everyday, going to the pool, eating French fries at basically every meal and ice cream every evening (the vacation diet was not my best choice)—all of this combined with the uninterrupted time with family is truly a great gift I look forward to every year.
The wraparound of normal life is different now, though, than for vacations in the past. Prior to 2020, our family would often spend the days leading up to a vacation in fifth gear. After all of the work to prepare to be off for a week, I tended to arrive at our vacation destination breathless. It took several days to wind down, but finally, by maybe Monday or Tuesday, I could relax. Just as the tension in my shoulders melted away, I’d start to think about what waited for me at home and begin to pack our bags to prepare for the wild pace of life to pick up again.
Vacation felt like a pit stop in the middle of the Daytona 500.
The extended rest of vacation week during that season was critical to survival because we just didn’t do that much resting in our normal lives. We had a constant, neverending race to run, with a finish line that kept fading over the horizon.
Now, we have a different weekly rhythm. Brandon and I try to take an intentional Sabbath day each week to shut down and recharge. Our bodies notice when we don’t. Brandon gets up early to spend time in silence and solitude. I have my own media pause at lunch where I eat and listen to the birds and squirrels and my dogs barking at the birds and squirrels. We end most workdays with a walk around our neighborhood.
Because of these rhythms, my life feels far less frantic now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still full, but it isn’t frantic.
When the twitchy feeling last Thursday arrived, I was kind of annoyed. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I relax anymore?! I was irritable and a little anxious all morning.
After lunch, I accepted this reality: I didn’t need any more downtime. What I needed was to be creative. I had emptied out enough—it was time to refill. Being creative, through writing or revising or working on songs with my husband, or any other way—fills me up in a way that reclining, reading, and consuming seasoned French fries does not.
So I wrote for a while. I revised some of my memoir for a while. I worked on a puzzle and helped Brandon craft some lines to a new song while he strummed his guitar. What a delight, to be able to be creative!
The next morning as Brandon and I walked on the beach for the last time, I observed so many wonders I never get to see at home—sea turtle tracks on the beach, a dozen live sand dollars, another living sea creature I still haven’t identified, and the ebb and flow of waves reshaping the beach as we walked on rippled sand.
The combination of rest and creativity has a way of slowing everything down, allowing our spirits to open up to the world around us, take in with awe every lovely created thing, from ants scurrying across a path to the sway of cattails and seagrass. Rest and creativity give us eyes to see ourselves inside the wide world God made and called good.
And when we pulled into our drive, I sighed, feeling the sense of home in my bones, grateful to be back in my small place of tall trees, squirrels, groundhogs, and birds, and barking dogs.
How grand it is to be a part of all of this life.
The Mystic of the Month of May Was Francois Fenelon
I highlighted pretty much every other sentence in The Seeking Heart by Francois Fenelon, whose direct and wise letters to various readers (nuns, I believe) in the 17th-ish century were a deep and necessary encouragement to me during this particular season of my life. If I copied all of the quotes I highlighted in my Kindle here, I’d be violating copyright laws probably, so go ahead and get yourself a copy. You won’t regret it.
Here, though, are two brief quotes followed by one very brief quote that makes me smile every time I think of it.
“It is not enough to like good books. You must be a good book yourself. The people who knew God best had more problems than you, yet they kept their peace and cultivated simplicity, purity, and inward prayer. I believe that your busy life exhausts you in every way. Don’t let your work carry you away and eat your life up. Take time to renew yourself before God. Be brief and act quietly with your business affairs.”
I am so often tempted to take up the busy life. But the abundant life is so much better!
“Most of us grow up being told there is a God, but I’m not sure how much we believe it. We don’t act like we believe in God. And those who believe in God have a relationship based on fear rather than love.”
What would happen if we truly believed in God, you know, the God of everlasting love, the God of peace and patience, the God of kindness and mercy, the God of hope? Everything would change.
And this last one, maybe the most beneficial and practical bit:
“Hardly will one annoying person have gone before God sends another to you.”
Okay, one more:
“Do not seek God as if He were far off in an ivory castle. He is found in the middle of the events of your everyday life. Look past the obstacles and find Him.”
May you find the palace in time right here in your ordinary life, friends. Blessings on your weekend!
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