I decided it would be nice to write the highlights and low-lights of our vacation which began 10 days ago. We were to arrive back home in Utah tonight. Three of us did arrive home but I stayed behind in Seattle with our daughter to help with some unfinished business. It's interesting that before we left home I felt like I should ask her if she felt that I should stay a little longer at the end of our week. She said, "No I don't need anyone to stay longer!" But still, in the back of my mind, there was this knawing feeling that I should pack more than two shirts and two pairs of pants for this trip - - and so I did that. Turns out I did stay longer because there was a need for me to do that. What do we learn from that? Always listen to your thoughts, feelings, promptings. Don't ask others what they think, just follow your heart! That's all I have to say, now here are the highlights and low-lights of our trip.
1. Picked up parents and headed for Seattle staying one night in Boise ID on the way.
2. Driving with sweet parents who had not been away from home in awhile. We laughed and listened to them talk about the past, dating experiences, school experiences, work experiences. Eating, driving and listening to good music was the best. I always love the drive to a vacation the best - - because of the anticipation of the journey and what it could be.
3. Seeing our four-year old grandaughter Ashlynn and her mom, our daughter Rachel, welcome us on the front porch as we drove into the yard of thier Auburn, Washington home. There is no happier person in all the world than Ashlynn because she has special needs which really is a oxymoron because someone this happy could never really have special needs.
4. Breakfast at the Sun Break Cafe in Auburn. Lunch at IVARS fish house.
5. Driving through Seattle sight-seeing and taking pictures of all the sights of Seattle. I wondered if we would see my favorite movie sights, "Sleepless in Seattle," Frazier's Apartment building, "Love Happens." We did find a house on the end of a pier that looked just like the house that Tom Hanks resided in for "Sleepless in Seattle." That was fun.
6. We found out we're having a grandson in about 4 months and I was at the ultrasound appt. with our daughter when the news broke.
7. One low-light. The doctor called and said our grandaugther may have Cancer. We were on our way home when the news came. Rachel called us in tears and so we went back to her house for a day and I stayed several more days while Dean and my parents went home. Now I know that the prompting that I might stay longer was real and I also know that this is the real reason we planned this trip when we did.
So . . . this trip turned out to be a trip that was about "vacating life" as well as a trip to take care of someone and care for them when a moment of possible crises arrived. There are no coincidences in life. I find that when we are living to the best of our ability, we are put in the places we need to be, when we need to be there. It always happens that way for me anyway. I hope it does for you as well.
Turns out our little Ashlynn does not have childhood cancer and we're thankful for that. More tests are being run to see what she does have. For now we are thankful and know that many prayers over the last three days were answered and may have even turned the blood tests to Ashlynn's good from where they were three days ago - - very bad.
So . . . vacating life is not always what you think it will be when you set out. It can be all that and more - - much, much more.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Vacation
Dean and I and my parents have been on vacation for one week now. We came to Seattle to visit our daughter and grandaughter. Our original plan was to visit them to give them a break while thier husband and father and our son-in-law is deployed in Haiti, helping in the earthquake recovery (2010).
Turns out we not only came to visit them but brought our parents who also needed a get-a-way. They had been through some parental trauma in the last year and that trauma had taken it's toll on thier nerves and was actually diminishing thier state of well-being and happiness, so we put them in the car and we all came.
We have not always been good at vacating life. Everyone should be good at this because life can get pretty busy, tough, strenuous, mentally taxing, physically taxing and not to mention down-right dull at times.
This vacation has been good for Dean and I because in the act of vacating our day to day life we were also helping someone else vacate thiers and we all needed the rest that getting away from life provides.
The dictionary holds the following definitions for the word "vacation."
1.a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday: Schoolchildren are on vacation now.
2.a part of the year, regularly set aside, when normal activities of law courts, legislatures, etc., are suspended.
3.freedom or release from duty, business, or activity.
4.an act or instance of vacating.
I would say that we have failed in accomplishing number 2 above in some respect because our vacations for the most part the past several years have been vacations of necessity which don't really count as vacations do they? Going to see family, attending a funeral, helping a sick child while necessary and needed can put more stress on you than if you had stayed home but we do all these things because we are needed and we love someone else and want to help them in times of crises.
This vacation, we have spent much time laughing, giggling, eating, resting, sight-seeing, loving, sleeping, and resting. I think we have met all of the objectives listed in the dictionary and then some.
Today I went to lunch with my daughter and her daughter and that was perhaps the most joyful part of our vacation because they are so perfect in my eyes and remind me that I want to be more like them - - perfect in almost every way.
Travelling with my parents has also been fun. I haven't done that since I was a very young woman and before that a very young girl. My husband and I have been apart for the better part of the last three years so being together on this vacation has been a wonderful reunion for us all.
Life is tough, vacations are needed and we should never put them off because we are too busy. That is just indication that we need vacations more than anyone else. Hello Realization - I'm one who had to be hit over the head to wake up and vacate life!
Turns out we not only came to visit them but brought our parents who also needed a get-a-way. They had been through some parental trauma in the last year and that trauma had taken it's toll on thier nerves and was actually diminishing thier state of well-being and happiness, so we put them in the car and we all came.
We have not always been good at vacating life. Everyone should be good at this because life can get pretty busy, tough, strenuous, mentally taxing, physically taxing and not to mention down-right dull at times.
This vacation has been good for Dean and I because in the act of vacating our day to day life we were also helping someone else vacate thiers and we all needed the rest that getting away from life provides.
The dictionary holds the following definitions for the word "vacation."
1.a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday: Schoolchildren are on vacation now.
2.a part of the year, regularly set aside, when normal activities of law courts, legislatures, etc., are suspended.
3.freedom or release from duty, business, or activity.
4.an act or instance of vacating.
I would say that we have failed in accomplishing number 2 above in some respect because our vacations for the most part the past several years have been vacations of necessity which don't really count as vacations do they? Going to see family, attending a funeral, helping a sick child while necessary and needed can put more stress on you than if you had stayed home but we do all these things because we are needed and we love someone else and want to help them in times of crises.
This vacation, we have spent much time laughing, giggling, eating, resting, sight-seeing, loving, sleeping, and resting. I think we have met all of the objectives listed in the dictionary and then some.
Today I went to lunch with my daughter and her daughter and that was perhaps the most joyful part of our vacation because they are so perfect in my eyes and remind me that I want to be more like them - - perfect in almost every way.
Travelling with my parents has also been fun. I haven't done that since I was a very young woman and before that a very young girl. My husband and I have been apart for the better part of the last three years so being together on this vacation has been a wonderful reunion for us all.
Life is tough, vacations are needed and we should never put them off because we are too busy. That is just indication that we need vacations more than anyone else. Hello Realization - I'm one who had to be hit over the head to wake up and vacate life!
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