A Week Without Plans

I took vacation July Fourth week to spend time with a West Coast friend visiting family in the Hamptons.  Her plan was to rent a car (one way) and visit us first.   We would then drive her to Sag Harbor, stay at her brother in law's, go to a party & return to N.H. in a few days.  It sounded fun despite six hours of driving each way.  I thought she booked ahead as we discussed this several months in advance.

I was wrong.

My girlfriend thought she could wait til after she'd arrived in town.  Not only was everything unavailable, a last ditch effort to fly Islip to Portland, ME. had ballooned from $128 to $432, one way.

Everyone stayed put.  I now had a week off without plans.

My son suggested we do things on a whim such as take our boat on nearby lakes for a day of swimming, sunning, relaxing: head to the various coastal beaches; visiting my favorite local "cities" like Portland and Portsmouth; BBQ on the Fourth.

Huh?  "...on a whim"?  Well, okay.  We decided to roll that dice.

My husband and I took each day as it unfolded, making our plans at the last minute and based entirely on what appealed to us at the moment.  I have gone to the lakes twice, spent a weekend at the beach in Maine, tried new restaurants,  read, napped, had satisfying conversations with strangers (quite a few surprisingly), gazed at the scenery, savored meals and enjoyed each minute while in it.

I've checked email once; used my cell for necessary conversations as opposed to random ones; used my Kindle Fire not at all.

In a NY Times op-ed on the subject of busyness, "The Busy Trap", cartoonist and writer Tim Kreider, nails the silly reasons so many of us find ourselves with so little time to reflect.  He puts the blame on us, our need to feel needed, our desire to look and/or feel important.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. . . Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. . .

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.

I've had a wonderful week of unexpected surprises every single day.  Nothing was planned.  Everything evolved from a spur of the moment idea.  I feel better than I've felt in months and I have only my girlfriend to blame.

Thanks, sweetie!