This week I’m at a family reunion with 21 of us all in a lodge in rural Virginia with no cell service. It’s good to disconnect and take the time to connect. This is a time for bonding with close family and cousins I haven’t seen in a few years. A few days out of the year to celebrate new engagements, support changes both good and hard and recognize the solidarity of family, knowing now that every family has their follies, foibles and unique strengths . So I will be a little short on posts this week. Today I am sharing a lesson on “what I know now” from my sister-in-law on the joy of vacationing alone.
A self-professed workaholic she recently took a trip to the Grand Canyon when she had some leeway in her work schedule and my brother couldn’t take time off. She came to the realization that she had worked too many long hours in her life not to take some time off when the opportunity came simply because her partner could not (perhaps I should say a reformed workaholic now blending passion for work and life). So at 48 she took her first solo vacation. And she can’t tell enough young people to follow suit.
“You will see things that you wouldn’t notice when you are with someone else. I saw a condor and was close enough to actually see its eyes and its feathers. If I had been with someone else we would have been caught up in the excitement of “oh look, there is a condor” rather than standing still and just looking…and letting it get close. The whole trip was an exercise in solitude. It was just me and my camera. I saw so much. I loved it. I came back both reconnected to myself and ready to connect.”