We don't think much about the words we use to describe time away from our regular routines. Our holidays are rarely "holy days" to mark changes in agricultural or liturgical seasons -- even the ones that are holdovers from more observant times such as Christmas and Easter. (A few urban pagans still attempt to mark soltices and harvest and planting moons, but it all seems a little silly for people whose closest ties with the earth are forged at the produce counter.)I'm guessing vacation from the daily world of work is closer to what most of us experience. To be honest, I shamelessly "vacated" at the start my annual leave this year. I abandoned work on a Friday evening and made a beeline for PEI with the family first thing the next morning. As I moved short-sleeved shirts, sandals and books into an unfamiliar closet, though, I could feel myself gradually downshifting into a slower rhythm. And it came with the smell of salt, the feel of wet sand and the sound of waves just outside. Perhaps it would be a holiday, after all.
3 comments:
Nice tones in the picture that complement the tone of your thoughts as you "vacate" (?!). Just back from a couple of weeks in Scotland over here - very much slower pace of life and managed to get in a few visits to gardens, saw seal pubs, visited Fingal's Cave and the like - back to it tomorrow, but for now the chilled vibe remains. Hope you had a good time?
That should, of course, be "pups" - freudian slip of some sort I think...
Thanks, Patrick. Good to hear that you could get away for some R&R (the more I think about the word "vacate," the worse it sounds). Yes, we had a very good time in the same place we stayed last year. We're feeling like we've "done" PEI now, so we're looking at arranging a house swap in France (the closer to Paris, the better). We swapped houses and cars with a family in Ayrshire a few years back and it worked very well -- it's a considerable saving when you're travelling with a family.
And why shouldn't seals have pubs?
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