A Monday meander: Summer vacation edition

Along the way, a field of sunflowers. We stopped to take a look (and a couple of photos).

It’s not enough to love something–or someone. Of course you love a person or art or music or the theatre. But you have to imagine that this person or this thing is trapped in a house afire, and the fire is apathy, and the fire is ignorance, and you have to go into the house all the time, day after day, year after year, and put out the flames and save the thing you love and rebuild the house in which it lives, and show it to others who will come to the rescue when you no longer can. Love is cheap and silly–a moron can love ice cream–but devotion is something worth talking about.

–Eva Le Gallienne

A detour along the way. We’ve seen this church from up high (on a mountain) many times. It was the first time we went down into the valley and passed by it.

Summer vacation this year was spent in the Raystown Lake recreation area in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  I was going to write “western Pennsylvania,” but it appears to be almost central.  A little left of center.  Not really north, south, east, or west.  Pennsylvania is a big state, as I can attest to through the experience of driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Going from one end to the other often feels like it takes forever.

I enjoy the little detours.  The problem with this particular detour was the guy with the car on a trailer.  He averaged about 20 miles per hour on this winding road that led back up a mountain and there was quite a parade of cars behind us.  I think it took about 30 minutes to go 6 miles.  There were places where he could have pulled over and let everyone pass.  I guess he decided he would rather lead the parade.

I had a lovely time for the most part.  We were with family (the Little Wookie, the Little Peanut, and their parents as well as M’s sister).  We had our moments, as families do, but nothing serious or too dramatic, and always reconciled immediately.  There were more fun and loving moments than any other kind.  The Raystown Lake area is beautiful and although we didn’t do a lot of exploring, there was some hiking, some time at a lovely and sandy beach that the boys really enjoyed (so did I), and quite a bit of swimming and/or water play.  It was hot there, as it has been hot here.  That was surprising since it is usually cooler in the mountains.

Testing the waters.

I came home thoroughly exhausted which is, I think, the weirdest sign of all of a good vacation.  I don’t know how I got it into my head that vacation should be restful.  It almost never is.  Our vacations are usually full of activities.  This particular vacation was not as full as others (because we resisted driving long distances to go hiking or exploring, we didn’t bring our bicycles, and we mostly hung out by the lake).  Even so, it was still exhausting.  I think the actual travel part of it is the most tiring aspect of vacation.  There are more people on the roads now, and that turned what was once a 4.5-5 hour trip into a 7-8 hour journey through traffic jams, detours, car accidents (not one we were involved in, thank the gods), and construction.

A sunset.

The boys can be exhausting, too.  They are so full of energy.  Boisterous is a good word for them.  Clamorous, rambunctious, disorderly.  All the things that young and energetic boys can be.  As I’ve said and written many times, there is a good reason people over 50 do not have children.  It’s hard for us to keep up.  lol!

This is all my long way of saying what others have said:  I need a vacation after my vacation.

A gorgeous sunrise.

Today is day 700 of my 1,000 Days commitment to do my morning practice.  I have learned so much along the way.  Watching/listening to the recording for last week’s Yoga Sutras class (which I missed because I was on vacation, and both internet and phone coverage were spotty at best), I thought about how the commitment itself took time for me to decide on.  I didn’t want my personal yoga practice to turn into just another thing on my to-do list.  The idea was a devotional practice.  If it couldn’t be that, I didn’t want to do it.

Side note:  By “devotional” I mean several things including spiritual practice.  It’s a devotion of time, space, practice.  A kind of time out of time, really, for myself and for getting in touch with myself (or my Self) and something higher than myself (even if that’s only the sunrise, but I do believe, now, that it is more than that).

Same sunrise, slightly different view.

Because I am very much human, there were days when my practice did, in fact, turn out to be something on my to-do list rather than something devotional.  I learned from that.  When it is another item on the to-do list, I tend to rush through it without really paying attention.  That sets the tone for the day, and it’s not always a good tone but more like a rushing throughout the whole day.

It should be noted that there is a difference between a rushed practice and a short practice.  On the days when I didn’t have time or energy or both for a longer practice, I modified to something shorter.  The difference between that and a rushed, check-it-off-the-list, practice is that I do the short practice wholeheartedly and wholemindedly and wholebodily.  (Yes, I know those last two are not words, but they fit so well.)

And still another view of the same sunrise.

I’m going to keep this relatively short.  Thank you for joining me on another meander.  Let’s meet out at the Point for sunset this evening.  We have some lovely clouds drifting in and out, and they have created some dramatic sunrises.  Maybe they will do the same for the sunset.  Sunset is scheduled for 8:05 PM.  It’s hot out there, but the bugs aren’t too bad.  Even they don’t like the heat very much.

Please be safe, be well, and just Be.

Sunrise, the day after we returned home.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  2,061:  Sunrise clouds that look more like the aurora borealis than clouds.  2,062)  A week with family enjoying nature and each other’s company.  2,063)  Pyrrole red, the July Monopalette color.  I am just getting started on July’s lessons.  I didn’t think I’d like pyrrole red since I’m not a big fan of red.  However.  It’s so vibrant that it’s hard not to like it.  2,064)  Getting the mowing done today.  The clouds were cooperative, blocking the sun as they moved in and out.  Even though we have a “feels like” temperature of 107°F, the clouds made it seem cooler just by virtue of their shade.  2,065)  Bella recovering well from her surgery three weeks ago.  She goes for her follow-up visit today (it should have been last week but we weren’t here to take her).

Isn’t this amazing?