…That holidays are always a wake-up call?
What happens in Australia stays in Australia? Not if I can help it.
I always talk about balance in my life, more than often when I am out of it. When someone is IN balance it is likely that they wouldn’t be thinking about it (a little like the old saying that claims if someone knows they are insane they probably aren’t.) When I leave my regular flow and routine it is invariably a lesson in awareness of what I am doing wrong within it… simply by looking at it from without of the walls I’ve set up around me.
Let’s face it, holidays are a high on the regular graph of life. They are a reminder that life is good and the world is beautiful. They are filled with wonder and curiosity. They allow us to explore and learn, relax and de-stress. For me it is always the opportunity to travel to places I would love to incorporate into my routines of the future. A fairy tale, perhaps, as it is always a lot easier to imagine a holiday setting as a home when it is not within the confines of routine and reality. But fantasy and day-dreaming is the sanction of a Pisces soul like mine. There is always something “better” on the horizon… and that could very well be what makes us tick with anticipation and break through the aforementioned walls.
Outside of the daydreams of homes in foreign lands and lottery wins, however, is the healthy aspect of perspective that a holiday can and should bring. For me it is always about half way through a rest period that I start to see the things I am doing wrong within the every day structure that can and “will” be improved upon my return. I can sit and stare at people in a park or at the waves in an ocean thinking of change, improvement, new directions and spiritual balance. While in a restful state it is far easier to see perspective. Life on vacation is not in a place of stress and schedule. The body is rested and there is time…. precious time to recognize the life being lived.
This begs the question of balance lost in one’s regular world. Why? Sure, we are creatures of habit but don’t we also have choice? There is no reason why anyone should be slave to anything that is detrimental to their being (and that isn’t to say that my world is in that sort of state… but seems poised to be from time to time.) It is true that if something is not working in our world there is no reason that we should continue being a part of it.
It is with these thoughts and my best wishes to return to my regularly scheduled world as an improved man with a plan to grow and change whatever isn’t working. It is at the midpoint of this holiday that I become acutely aware that there are easier ways to “be” and to “be happy” in routine. There are things that I am not doing that I should be and things that I am doing that must be stopped. I am aware now given this perspective of a world in another part of the world. Holidays are always the answer to re-alignment.
Perhaps I should simply take more of them.
Be Happy. Be Well. Be.