I'm back. Kinda.
It's amazing what a week of living truly unplugged - no computer, very little television (except for Stargate Atlantis on DVD) and no cell reception for the bulk of the time can do to your brain. As far as I can tell, it's all good.
I feel more relaxed, more authentically me and more awake and alive than I have in months.
Mind you, I'm not blaming my TV, computer or cell phone for my spinning, stressy, busy brain. I love my gadgets and wouldn't want to give them up permanently. But entertaining ourselves with nature, great music , magic, daily yoga and a box full of art supplies was incredibly liberating for my neurons. Sooner or later they'll begin firing in normal sequence again and all the ideas I unearthed and played with on a more-or-less subconscious level will come flowing out of me. Until then, forgive me if I sound a little spacy. Actually, I'm more grounded than I have been all year, but in a quiet kind of way that makes putting my feelings into words more challenging than usual.
So, I'll go for the easy fix for now. In no particular order, here are some things we did on vacation-
- Walked over a mile of desolate sand dunes to get to a stretch of beach completely inaccessable by car. Which meant we had miles of sand and surf to ourselves (seagulls, spawning smelt and harbor seals notwithstanding). *laughs* Which makes perfect sense because they were either flying or swimming and...oh, nevermind. You can see where this is going. Anyway, we did that three times, twice in the morning and once for the sunset. That time, we took the husbands - since they'd finally arrived - and a lovely bottle of syrah. Yes, we actually packed wineglasses in our backpacks. Awesome.
- Morning mandalas. I printed out a bunch of mandala coloring pages and brought some excellent colored pencils. We sat at the kitchen table listening to quiet music, drinking coffee (me) or tea (everyone else) - and YEAH, I got the whole pot to myself *bounces* - and coloring every morning, sometimes alone, sometimes as a team. When a mandala was done, I'd fold the top a bit and staple it over a long piece of string. By the end of the week, we had a very groovy set of prayer flags hanging on the wall over the couch.
-Checked out the local farmers' market. Everyone picked one vegetable, then we went home and made the most delicious stir fry with udon & tofu. After we shared a gigantic chocolate brownie in the sun.
-Made friends with a young stag. He loved the plums on the tree beside the porch, so we'd knock them down for him. By the end of the week, he didn't care if we were sitting three feet away from him watching. I loved the way he'd chew the plum then spit out the pit. =D
-Spent the day playing on the beach where we got married.
-Visited the local independent bookstore and got some great books for the kids and a new journal for me.
-Did yoga on the deck or on the beach almost every day.
-Did lots of bird noticing. Not watching, because that implies an active hunt for birdlife. This place was teeming with birds though, so it was more a matter of just listening, and looking around once in awhile. Ravens (a pair that I swear followed me out to the beach one day), hummingbirds, red-headed woodpeckers, starlings, swallows, sparrows, doves, stellar's jays, house finches...they loved the big sunny meadow, the fruit trees and the massive cypresses that made up our yard.
-I read - and re-read parts aloud to everyone - Yeah Dave's Guide For Livin' the Moment. I can't recommend this book enough. It's hilarious but right on. Nothing incredibly new for me in terms of insights, but he puts a fresh spin on stuff that had me really loving it. And man, I am so going to take one of his Yoga+Wine or Yoga+Chocolate workshops next time he's in Napa. Maybe even both.
-Listened to amazing music, pretty much all day. Between us, Kris and I have a huge and wildly eclectic collection of CDs and playlists. We had the groove totally going on.
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Alrighty, then. Maybe now you can see why I'm not in heavy thinking mode. I'm kinda stuck in being groove. Frankly, I hope I can hang on to some of that energy for quite a while.