Power Off!

It’s that time of year – my first vacation week of the year.  I’ll take another at Christmas, and scatter a few days in between, but this is my dedicated summer break, and it’s now Friday, and I have re-discovered a few undeniable truths.

First, it always takes a couple of days to unlatch work from my mind.  In fact, my first day of vacation was nearly indistinguishable from a work from home day.  It didn’t help that I signed up for a conference call for Tuesday, thinking that a half-hour meeting was not going to affect my mindset that much.  And it didn’t, except for how it did…  I’ve read this is a trait of many of us these days—with smartphones and laptops, many of us just keep working through vacation.  We don’t disconnect, and we don’t lose touch.  It is particularly telling that while I set an out of office agent, my inbox is still under control.

I’ve also learned that I continue to overestimate what I can do in a week, even in the personal realm.  In the weeks leading up to my vacation, I dream of all the things I can get done.  For this week, the list included getting a start on the novel that rattles around my head, painting the kitchen, tuning my viola and remembering (OK, learning) how to play it, getting the boys ready for next semester, vet appointments, making the house immaculate, a five mile daily walk, and yes, of course, relaxing.  As I look back on the week,  while the dogs have been to the vet and the house is a very little bit cleaner, the viola is still in the closet, my sneakers are none the worse for wear, and there is no novel forming on my laptop.  It is quite clear that I mentally overbooked the week.

This pattern is not new.  I am reasonably certain that I did exactly the same thing last year.  When a “free” week presents itself, the dreams fall out of the mind and into that week.  Some dreams are practical, others, like the novel, more remote.  After shuttling to and from the island all these years, I make the mistake of not holding vacation time here as sacred.  If I’m “just” at my house, then doing chores seems like a reasonable thing to do.  But it neglects the fact that a vacation week is meant to be relaxing and to be enjoyed, and it neglects the fact that the island is one of the best places on earth to do that!

We had some houseguests for a few days—and one of the benefits of having guests is to see the excitement in their eyes at what has become ordinary to us, and to be reminded (if we need to be) of what is so special about being here.  It’s long past time for me to turn off the phone, turn off the laptop, throw away the list of errands, and maybe consider having Monday be one of those scattered vacation days.  It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?