Have you ever had the idea of going away and doing nothing? I mean ... really nothing?
Truth is ... I've been wanting to do this for over 6 years now. Just pack up after Christmas and all the craziness around this holiday and go somewhere north where there's tons of snow and nothing but trees and silence around - and maybe a moose or two in sight. This year, I decided I was going to move from thinking about it to doing it. And, so I find myself in rural Maine surrounded by beauty, a frozen lake, 16-18" of snow in the forecast for today and already about 2 feet on the ground. Amazingly beautiful.
The selling of the idea to my family was somewhat interesting. My kids asked what we were going to do, as we usually do "active" vacations in the winter (ski/snowboard). The answer was ... "We're NOT going to do anything." And then I heard, "What?... are you friggin' kidding us? You must be out of your mind. What are you thinking? I'd rather not go. Are you crazy? Alone in the forest with no neighbors nearby? Are we going out to dinner? No Dad, I don't want to go..."
My calm answer was, "Yes... we are all packing up and making that trip up to Maine. We are going to learn to be with ourselves, to disconnect to connect, to learn to be bored once again, to gather our thoughts, to admire the natural beauty around us, and basically to just "be". If you feel like waking up at 11am, that's ok. If you feel like being in your PJ's all day, that's ok. If you feel like having breakfast at 2pm, that's ok. For once let's not have a schedule. For once, let's not have somewhere to go. For once, let's not have soccer, basketball, pick-up, drop-off, commute, train, car, subway. For once let's not let the clock rule our day. For once, let's just BE.
And ... the report thus far 48 hours into this "experiment" is that everyone is chill, everyone is relaxed and everyone is doing their own thing. At, whatever pace they want to do it. There's something special that happens when you put everything aside and just focus on being. It's almost like you're really living the NOW, which as we all know ... is what living really is. We just have right now.
And this little escape comes at a perfect time of the year for me. As the year comes to an end, there's time to reflect on the trials and tribulations but also on successes and accomplishments that 2016 brought. And build upon those to project – with true intention – what 2017 will be.
So, there's not much more to this story other than I'm glad that I acted upon my instinct and pulled the trigger this year to make it out here. After some initial family complaints, I'm reassured everyone is thoroughly enjoying this time to "chill" and will come back rested and with a new appreciation of spending some time alone. Well, maybe that realization won't hit them until after some years when they look back and realize that this little-secluded family vacation actually taught us all the huge benefit of slowing down and allowing the body and mind to reconnect and reset. To borrow from an analogy I once read, "Just like computers need to be shut down every so often to reset ... so do we. We need to schedule time in our calendars to shut down, to reset and to reboot. This will allow us to have a fresh mind and outlook.
Happy New Year 2017. May all your goals and wishes be accomplished. It's up to you to make it happen.
Commit to thrive and remember to Pay Your Health First,
-- Chris
