Ready for change

Hoping for rest and refreshment on holiday

Tomorrow my family and I go on holiday for two weeks. Without intending to, much of my writing this week has been about rest – both physical and spiritual. Clearly my subconscious has been preparing for these next few weeks.

One thing I’ve learnt about holidays is that, for me, rest and refreshment stem not from the exotic, but simply from change. (Though I’m not against an exotic holiday now and then!) Holidays are life-giving even if only for the change of location and change of routine. They can still be tiring of course – as any fellow parent with young kids well knows! – but the move away from the usual day-to-day activities is always worth it.

As I approach this break, I’m also thinking of other ways – beyond being away from my city – that this time can be different from my normal routines.

I don’t always feel the need to break from social media when I’m on holiday as it’s a source of great enjoyment for me. But this time around, I’m going to be staying off Twitter and Facebook. I’ll post a few pictures on Instagram that will cross-post, but I’m not going to be checking the apps while I’m away.

As part of my summer of fiction, I want to make the most of the time I have for reading. The downside to social media is that it can cause us to devote too much time to the trivial. I want this break to be about quality time with my family and quality use of my time with what I read. So no getting sucked into reading Buzzfeed listicles for me this holiday!

I did think about breaking my daily writing habit I’ve been forming for the last six or seven weeks, but I’ve decided to keep going. Access to the internet isn’t going to be great where we’re staying, so we’ll see how well I do at publishing the posts, but I’m definitely going to keep this daily writing going. I’m interested to see where my thoughts go with what to write about while I’m in holiday mode.

Perhaps more than ever I feel the need for this holiday. I’ve been counting down the days for longer than I care to admit. Without pinning too much expectation on the break, I am hoping this will be a time of recovery and healing.

I’ve felt stress and anxiety beyond what I’m used to as a result of Rachel, my wife, being out of action for most of this year with post-viral fatigue. I am more than ready for a change of scenery – physically, emotionally, and spiritually!