​In winding up this series on vacations and opportunities for self-care, I want to return to an idea I offered at the beginning.  The essence of a vacation is to vacate our life in order to make room for self-care.  We vacate our calendar, our work schedule, our daily routines, and the same-old, same-old of our daily lives.  By evacuating our usual, we are prepared to experience the un-usual, the new and potentially meaningful in our lives.
 
This can take real courage.  Too often we have come to see ourselves by what we do or how we spend our day-to-day lives.  Our conversations, relationships, and sense of self-identity become dependent upon the routines and activities of the same-old, same -old.  These are important and necessary for much that is good in our lives.  It allows us to participate in the world around us.  They encourage us to reach outside of ourselves and make connections.  They help us grow and contribute to the lives of others.  Unfortunately, when we ponder vacating this place of familiarity and/or comfort, we may fear losing our connections and place in the world. 
 
To deal with this fear we may only partially vacate our lives.  We may move from the suburbs to an RV Park for a couple of weeks.  We may leave our apartment for a hotel room.  We may take a “busman’s holiday” by pursuing our work interests while on vacation.  We may take our work phone along just in case.  We may pursue the same hobbies while on vacation that we pursue in our daily lives.  We may travel with friends from work or the neighborhood.   These are okay as long as we recognize that we may not be fully emptying our lives to receive something new and refreshing.  We may not enjoy the full benefit of the vacation.
 
The more we can change things up on vacation the greater the opportunity we will have to find renewal and see new possibilities for our lives.  We may be able to relax a little when we step back a little.  But when we immerse ourselves in something new, we will have the advantage of a whole different perspective on our lives.  We will have a greater chance of discovering our “being”, waking up our minds, and resetting our senses to receive beauty into our lives.
 
I encourage you to vacate the same-old, same-old and take a break.  Whether you travel or stay at home is not important.  Muster your courage to do something new for a week or two and see where your journey takes you.  You can always “come home” when you are ready.  But you may just discover that home is not what you think it is and you may find ways to make the “same-old, same-old” into something brand new!
 
God’s speed on your journey.  May your vacation be an introduction to a new movement in your life’s symphony.
 
Blessings,
 
Bob

​In the world of the everyday, we move from moment to moment taking care of “business.”  Much of what we do is routine and makes us effective at what we do.  Even when the routine does not work, we will reach back and find another way to “get-r-dun.”  And, when nothing else has seemed to work, we will look around and find a new way to meet the goal.  We move from one task to the next at work and at home.  We spend the bulk of our lives “doing” stuff.  When finished we move on to do other stuff.
 
A vacation can offer us an opportunity to find another side of our lives that is more about “being” than doing.  Now, I have to be careful using a word like “being.”  It has been the fodder for countless philosophical arguments for millennia and is generally used in such obscure, meaningless ways that it has become a joke to most folks.   I am not interested in picking the mites off the backs of the philosophical fleas that hang out on the word “being.”  But vacations do offer us a time to get back in touch with ourselves, to rediscover who we are and what fills our lives with joy.  When we live into who we are, we are “being.”
 
The soul offers ample opportunities for us to vacate our routine lives and find our “being.”  The soul opens our eyes to the wonders around us.  The soul helps us experience the world without running our perceptions through the filters of the mind.  We can receive something without asking questions about it.  How can I use this?  Where did it come from?  Why is it here?  What is it called?  The soul can receive a sensory experience and respond to it with joy and wonder. 
 
The soul helps us vacate the routines and introduces us to someone who may have gotten lost in all the “doing.”  It can re-introduce us to the “being” inside who revels in wonder and awe.  It can help us meet ourselves along the way of the everyday.

​Open the Senses.  Look, listen, taste, touch, and smell.  Let the world astound you!
 
Let go of the questions!  Let the world be what it is.  It is remarkable all on its own.
 
Enjoy the moment by letting that experience fill your life.  Let your awe force everything else aside.
 
Allow that moment to become a memory, unencumbered by theories, ideas, or reflections.
 
Let the moment speak as it chooses, especially if it chooses to remain silent.
 
When the moment passes allow gratitude to grow as you look back with joy for the gift you have received.
 
Blessings,
Bob

Soulful Vacations
 
What Is Awe?
 
Cultivating Awe
​

​The walls were lined with stacks of already read magazines and newspapers.  Shelves of books stood like silent sentinels to past learning.  Her home was a maze of carefully constructed trails among the stacks, shelves, and furniture.   To call her a hoarder was to miss the point of her clutter.  She collected ideas and accumulated knowledge.  Her passion was to understand and piece together the incredible mystery that surrounded her. 
 
Unfortunately, as the years slipped into decades, her passion had begun to fade.  She still walked among a clutter of accumulated wisdom, but it no longer fed her mind.  It had become the flotsam of a well-lived life but was now sadly neglected and largely forgotten.  She no longer pursued new questions, preferring instead to keep re-tracing old, familiar paths.  It was not that she believed she had figured out the great mystery. It had simply lost its glitter and she had become captive to her own ideas.  Her insights had become musty old clichés.  Her curiosity had died out along with her desire to learn and grow.  Her ideas had become stale memories that no longer fed her spirit.  It would be very easy to pity her.  But we must remind ourselves that we are at risk of building a similar labyrinth of ideas and becoming lost in those well-trod trails.  
 
The key that keeps our minds awake and curious is a passion for learning and the ideas and the insights it brings.  This passion depends on a steady flow of energy from the deep well of the human will.  It depends on wonder and humility to help us keep asking questions.  Why?  How?  Who? What?  When?  This is the breath of life for someone who wants to learn, grow, discover and re-learn.  When we grow tired or reallocate our energy to other areas of our life, the well runs low and we simply cannot be bothered to ask questions any longer.  Some may see such questions as distractions from the “real stuff of living.”  They may be too busy to stop and ask why.  They may stack their ideas along the walls and fill bookcase after bookcase with insights where we can pretend that they are still an important part of their lives.  They become slaves to the clichés that have gathered around their beliefs and walk the same paths through the “same-old, same-old” every single day.

​The healthy spirit needs to open up the windows of the mind.  It needs to ask questions and seek new insights, ideas, and memories. 
 
The tip for this week is to pursue those questions that beg you for an answer.  And then chase that rabbit as far as you can.  When something catches your mind’s eye, stop and explore the who, what, why, how, and where.  For example, on a recent show about Ancient Native Life, I learned that the tribes built their granaries on a cliff, high above the canyon floor.  I asked myself “Why did they build them way up there?”  I soon learned that they did so to hide their food from raiders.  The height also made it difficult for itto be taken and increased their ability to defend them.   I learned a lot about how an ancient people lived and something about the human spirit in their story.
 
Take you mind along on your vacation.  Vacations give us the opportunity get outside of our well-trod paths and become humbly curious about our world.  They can offer us the opportunity to do so with a purpose beyond just making a living or doing what we have always done.  When we develop a curiosity, driven by wonder, we cast aside our preconceptions and allow the world to teach us.  We do not have to impress anyone or fulfill other’s expectations.  We are able to focus on the wonders that exist just beyond our understanding.  This transforms our time into a glorious adventure.  Travel becomes an exploration.  Museums become teachers.  Reading becomes a dialogue with interesting people we will likely never meet.  Listening to a podcast, exploring Wikipedia, or searching YouTube becomes a journey into the unknown.  Having a real conversation with real people about things that challenge our assumptions and ideas becomes a time of insight and growth. 
 
Humble curiosity can awaken your mind while on vacation. It allows us to rediscover the joy of a learning about ourselves and the world around us.  In that rediscovery you will find the flame of passion flickering to life in your soul.  The energy will start to flow, and you may even find a door that will lead out of your well-walked paths and into a new world that is more than you ever dreamed.
 
Happy 4th, my friends.
 
Blessings,
Bob

A Healthy Curiosity
 
Why Curiosity?
 
Humble Curiosity
​