The Birdbath of Life

If you’re fortunate to be able to take time off from the day-to-day, vacations can be joyful and enriching. Exploring someplace or something new broadens the scope of our lives. Travelling far away can be an exciting adventure, while a staycation provides a thrill when we find gems in our own backyard. Whether near or far, taking time off to relax or discover is important time for reset and enrichment. Since a vacation can be so impactful, I try to take one every single day.

Here are some of my favorites:

My go-to vacation, which I can count on to be a success without fail, has me travelling on my two feet, with a preferred departure at dawn or dusk. I start from my front door, travel in the near vicinity for an hour or more, then arrive back home grounded and refreshed. For these vacations, I pack my phone so I can pause to photograph sweet flowers along the way, or a snowman waving hello, or ants pattering in unison at the edge of a curb. I do stop to smell roses if I can. I do take in the glorious view of a sunrise, or naked silhouetted trees at dusk in the winter. These are special vacations because they teach me something about beauty I didn’t already know, and those lessons are never ending. It’s why I keep going back.

If that vacation sounds like too much roughing-it for you, a luxurious staycation I like to take brings me to the couch. It’s a short trip, around half an hour at most, and involves closing my eyes, focusing on my breath, sometimes listening to a guided meditation on my phone, and generally being pared down and serene. When I come back from an excursion like this, I’m always completely renewed. I want to point out that while this jaunt does sit in the lap of luxury, you get a huge bang for your buck.

But maybe you’re into enrichment opportunities, and I’m with you! Sometimes I like to go on one of those workshop-type vacations where the itinerary is designed around a class or activity to learn or practice an interest of yours. Lately I’ve been trying to learn how to make cartoons, so I pack up my laptop, stylus pen, tea and cozy clothes, then travel to the living room where I enjoy the local scene while drawing animals engaged in some manner of silliness. It’s terribly enjoyable. If you’re into learning something new, I highly recommend designing a trip like this for yourself. It might sound like it involves a lot of overhead, but seriously, it doesn’t.

And last, since family is a key feature of many vacations, I try to plan a family trip as often as possible. You never know when everyone’s schedule will line up perfectly to make it happen, but when it happens, off we go! Usually to the kitchen. We like to take little day trips to the table or counter, where we can catch up on each other’s lives and share a meal. Sometimes one of us will order breakfast while the other is there for lunch, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares when you’re on vacation. Board games sometimes dominate these trips. At other times, organic conversation. When we share a laugh, we know the time was well spent. We arrive back at our regular lives in front of our respective computers in our separate rooms with a newfound sense of connectedness. If we’re rating here (and we are), this kind of trip gets five stars from me—top rating.

I hope you see how fabulous and easy a vacation can be. If you’re not taking a vacation most days, I couldn’t encourage this practice more. There is plenty of discovery awaiting you, but the real trick to taking a daily vacation is realizing you’re on one. Once you’ve mastered this, every day is a trip, and life becomes an adventure. I think you should go for it.