Vacation (2)

Alaska vacation.

Most people are enthralled by an Alaska-trip. It takes planning and saving for most of us. Everyone we talk to is either planning to go, wishing to go, or has been there. With the help and encouragement of our daughter and our son-in-law we are planning to embark on a cruise from Vancouver, BC, to Seward, AK next week (we leave Des Moines on Saturday, May 16). This is followed by a land cruise to Fairbanks, form where we plan to fly home on May 30.
In keeping with my previous post, we plan to take it easy. There is a dichotomy between enjoying the “trip of a lifetime” and “seeing it all.” There is so much we have not seen, so much we have not experienced. Yet, I believe that to enjoy the things we do experience, that we need to focus on being where we are at the moment, not looking to go somewhere else. The grass may be greener on the other side, but as this proverb implies: this could be wishful thinking.
King Solomon shares in Ecclesiastics 5: “After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift!” (Quoted form “The Message”)
I will post some pictures after we come back ☺

VACATION

Vacation.
What is in a word?
Vacant
Vacancy
Vakantie (Dutch)

The word seems to imply an emptiness, void, or space.
So, why do we rush so form place to place to fill our “vacation” with busy, glitzy places?
Things to see, things to do, money to spend?
Do we really understand the need to be “vacating” from work so we can be recharged in order to function with joy in our daily drudgery? Many vacationers seem to need a “vacation” to recover from their vacation.

When we “retire” - which does not mean to change a tire, but could mean: to go to bed in order to go to sleep; do we “rest?” Or do we pursue other quests which wear us out?

I do enjoy the more leisurely pace of this season of my life.
Traveling on secondary roads, seeing small towns, enjoying the budding trees, dogwoods; going some-where ...
Yes, we do still have goals, and I still don’t have time for golf ☺
Sometimes we have to get “there.” Volunteering is an interdependent activity - but we are volunteers, not staff. There is a certain freedom here. Freedom from worry, of being in charge.
Planning helps.

So, enjoy, your vacation, lie on the beach, but don’t get burned
even if it means to fill it with trivial things,
but skip the drudgery!