Awesome Day #4 — Out With the Junk

Yesterday was day #4 of my 8 day ‘stay-cation’.  Really, I have already got everything I was looking for out of this break.  Yesterday I did some big cleaning (I’m working to get rid of a lot of junk) and a little yard work, but mostly I had revelations (what do you do on your vacation?).

One of the most interesting is how much of ‘out there’ I don’t need.  Except for one movie (X-men!) and one lunch in town (Dapalmas!), I have stayed home (excluding park walks since it’s close to my house).  And I love it!  I’ve often thought that I could be trapped on my property for a year and be truly happy — provided there was food (and park walks).  And now I know it.

Oh sure, I enjoy seeing my writing buddies and the occasional movie, but there’s so much of ‘out there’ exists only to tranquilize you from the effects of out there.

Another thing about out there is people.  I think of myself as pretty friendly even though I’m an introvert, but I do now recognize that I worry too much about upsetting other people and try to fix unhappy situations that aren’t my fault.  Now, that’s a nice idea to want to help, but it shouldn’t send me back home stressed out and with an ice cream in my hand.  Actually, my stomach has knotted up a little thinking about it.  But now that I know, I can work to avoid those triggers.

I wonder how many of our food dependences, multitude of health problems, and just feeling sometimes hopeless all boils down to not getting to sit still long enough, in peace, on a front step, staring at the trees.  And I know a lot of people don’t have that step, or haven’t discovered that peace yet inside them, but it’s there — and there’s parks and so many adventures waiting for us while we’re waiting in line at the drive thru.

If you ever lose your way, just know all it takes is a few days of perfect peace to find it.  Just get away from all that — and you might find the key to what you’ve been searching for all along.