Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Vacation Restoration


We enjoyed our week away. Here are a few highlights:
*daily trips to the beach
*lots of bike riding
*campfires, campfires, campfires
*spiders and snakes and bats (oh, my!)

The highlight for my children were all the hands-on nature programs run by the state park naturalists. They got to handle worms (two kinds), hold snakes, explore a creek for such finds as crayfish and waterbugs and snails, see hundreds of black widow spiders and a tarantula too. These are not girlie-girls. Or maybe they are, but they're not the squeamish kind. Thank goodness for them.

The highlight for me were the times of quiet and stillness I found: standing in the woods listening to the birds and the rustling leaves(while waiting for the Uber-princess to catch up on her little bike), standing in Lake Michigan watching the waves sweep in over and over, sitting beside a warm fire as the sun began to rise, sitting on a sand dune watching the sun set.

The commonality in all that for both the girls and I? Nature. We got good and close to it, in our own ways, closer than we can get in our suburban environment. It was good for my soul and good for their minds.

6 musings:

Unknown said...

That sounds like a really nice vacation - glad you enjoyed it!

Audra Krell said...

Seems like a fabulous trip. I have been seriously writing for about a year. When I go on vacation, I struggle with wanting to write desperately, because I am so relaxed and inspired. Our boys and my husband want our family time together, after all it's vacation. Do you ever struggle with this?

Lara said...

Beth - thanks. It was the first week-long vacation I can remember in a long time. And well worth it.

Audra - I get inspired to write while on vacation too. But at least this time around it wasn't a struggle because hubby and I had agreed I could have an hour most days just for writing (on my laptop, often sitting in the quiet of our pop-up). And in addition to that I managed to get in some wonderful fiction writing in a notebook on the beach based on the inspiration I found there. Beaches are fruitful places for fiction inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by.

L.L. Barkat said...

Good. Oh, very, very good.

Lara said...

LL - Was thinking of you while I was gone. All that nature (and being without wifi, etc) did a lot for my "technology fatigue".

Tammy L. Hensel said...

There is something about nature that just refreshes one's spirit, isn't there? Often we are so distracted by the day to day, that it does take a vacation to make us stop and appreciate God's beautiful creation and to hear His voice speaking through it. What a marvelous worship opportunity! Thank you for sharing. I am glad I came across your blog today. I enjoyed the pic and reading your musings.
Hope you will stop by my blog sometime and share some thoughts.
Tammy L. Hensel
http://dedicatedwriter.blogspot.com