Take a vacation every day.

Tomorrow the kids go back to school.  Summer vacation is over and the routine and wild buzz in our daily lives are about to return.  Reflecting on how rejuvenated I’ve felt after being on vacation, I have come to a startling conclusion.  I need to take a vacation every day and you do too!  Bear with me on this one.  You’re at the beach, listening to the sound of the waves crashing and you feel the ocean breeze in your hair.  You hike through the woods, enjoy the solitude of the forest and stop to rest near a bubbling brook.  You go to a lake, float lazily on your raft, and feel the warmth of the sun and the cool water on your toes.  You breathe and stop to reflect on life.  Your kids do the same, through play and through instinct.  They create and build sand castles, jump the waves in the ocean and skip stones across the lake’s surface.  Childish laughter echoes through the air.  The soul feels rejuvenated.

All of these moments have one thing in common, and that is the human being’s  innate desire and joy that results when communing with nature.  We spend so much time separating ourselves, staying behind our concrete walls that we lose our ability to just breathe and be linked to this glorious world of ours.  Take a minute right now, at this very moment, and listen to the cicadas outside, go outside and feel the breeze, and stop one second and be thankful for your life.  This is a vacation moment. Drink your coffee out on the patio.  Eat lunch at work outside while you still can.  Go on a walk in the evening with your loved ones.  These are vacation moments.  Encourage your kids to take their own daily vacation, have them sit outside to eat their snacks, encourage them to burn off steam, gaze at the stars, and make nature an important part of their lives.   Teach them that these moments are just as important, if not more important than being on their gadgets.

Balance and let nature rejuvenate you.  Take a vacation every day.