There’s No Place Like Home After Vacation

I have a love/hate relationship with vacations. While my husband has fabulous memories of singing Kumbaya around beach campfires with numerous cousins, I have one memory of my family camping and there was yelling involved. My childhood vacations meant sleeping on uncomfortable beds at relative’s houses so the parents could get a break from parenting.

When I started my own family, we began a beach tradition to give them that vacation goodness my husband remembered. Eventually, I begin to feel and understand that vacations can be pleasant.

I always enjoyed being the mother of my cute kid at the beach. I enjoyed the cool husband who took the first shift in the pool or the ocean. I enjoyed the scream I got from my son spraying really cold water-repellent sun block on his back. It takes me a day to realize I don’t have to do much of anything. So, I sit, and I read a lot. I love reading poolside alone and enjoy just being me. Earbuds playing soft jazz in my ears, No doing necessary. Only Being.

No doing necessary. Only Being.

Sometimes, you need a special mental and physical zone where you have nothing to do but enjoy the scenery. You may need to vacate your comfort zone and find a place where you prioritize creating memories and smiles and tradition. Where you spend a little extra time and money to enjoy your people and the life you usually take for granted and where you generate the photo-op for this December’s Christmas card. This is my purpose for life as well as vacations and takes loving intention and a little proactive effort to save the money nd book the time.

But this vacation, I have never been so relieved to be home. Crossing over my home’s threshold last night from our last vacation trip this Summer, I was deeply profoundly glad of my home and my family’s safety here. As much as I am glad the trips take us away from the severe summer heat that we experience here in July and August, I have a profound sense of gratitude upon return for the reaffirmation of the lifestyle I choose to raise my children in. For the house that I have made so eclectically my home.

We all needed a break from our routines to then return to appreciate the way we feel like ourselves inside of those routines. A cheer to vacating and returning to our homes inside our houses and inside ourselves.