Vacation Hangover

La Jolla Shores, San Diego,
the cliff/caves between the cove and popular beach

I have a "vacation hangover." No, I didn't drink alcohol in excess. I went on vacation for 8 days. I went to my favorite location and spent as much time as reasonable on the southern California shore in the San Diego region. The weather was ideal. We hung out at different locations at different times of the day. Our accommodations were fabulous at my in-laws home. We were relaxed most of the time (except those moments when an idiot changes lanes, crosses in front of you too close at 70+ mph).

And I want to go back.

My husband said we needed to return on Saturday so we could recover before returning to work on Monday. But that Sunday was not enough for recovery because while my body was back home, attending to work/life responsibilities, my heart and spirit wanted to get up early and walk the path along La Jolla Cove while my mother-in-law completed her ritual swim. Instead, I awoke Monday to 80 degrees at 8 a.m. in the desert.

I console myself with the idea that we all must experience the waves of life. I am not retired yet, have a few working years left. I have a good life, applying my gifts in a capacity that benefits my community and meets my basic needs. But, there is a longing and a bit of anxiousness as I look forward to some day in the future that I can at least visit the ocean more often, as retiring next to it requires a sum of money that is currently not in the bank. 

Today is Tuesday and I am still attempting to get past the "vacation hangover." I completed a lot of the work related to-do's yesterday that come with being absent for a week. Today, I got more completed. At home, well, I just want to sit outside and remember. The ocean is the place I 'let go' of the thoughts racing in my head. The sound of the waves releases the must do/should do thoughts in my mind. My spirit is simply present. "The beach is not the place to work; to read, write or think...at least, not at first," says Anne Morrow Lindbergh in her book Gift from the Sea. "One is forced against one's mind, against all tidy resolutions, back into the primeval rhythms of the sea-shore...and then some morning in the second week, the mind wakes, comes to life again." (p. 15-16 pub.1955) Lindbergh describes the ocean exactly as I experience it. I needed the second week! Then my creative spirit and mind would be ready to collaborate. Some day I'll get that second week, maybe even a third, and I will be past this wave.