“When you clear your mechanism and tune out the noise that invades your being, you may come to a rare state of grace — that state when you are thoroughly convinced that God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.”
THE default setting for modern life is to plan a vacation elsewhere, the farther away, the better.
Vacations are fine. They are meant to recharge our energy levels so we can come back swinging and getting into the groove of normal life. The problem with an elaborate, all too often expensive vacation, is we come home tired, jetlagged, light in the wallet, a few pounds heavier and needing a vacation from the vacation. Are we idiots or what?
So how about learning the art of “staycation?” This is when we decide that our home is the best place to stay put and spend our time away from work, away from stresses and just away from it all: ringing phones; deadlines and production quotas, intrigues, to-do lists and every aggravation known to man.
Sure, the mountain of laundry is there, the kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms need cleaning, the garden needs weeding. But for a “staycation” to recharge your spirit, you may need to turn a blind eye to the screaming demands of your immediate environment. Just say NO. This time is for you alone.
So okay, you are obsessive about a clean home. Just reserve a day or two of your vacation time to sprucing up just the essentials. Don’t go to Home Depot and decide painting the house as your “staycation” project. It doesn’t work that way.
The art of doing a proper “staycation” is deciding you just want to give yourself time to JUST BE. You rip and shred your to-do list and find joy in the moment, forgetting the demands of your life, for the time being.
So go ahead. Wear your pajamas all day. Turn off or mute the phones. Turn off the TV and mute the music. Vegetate. Order pizza. Let the world turn without your input. If you have a stressful job, you will appreciate a true “staycation” done right.
Swing in a hammock and look at the sky and dwell on the wonderful parts of your life as you remember lessons learned over the years mixed with countless moments of overwhelming joy. Edit out the ugly and blot out its existence, for the time being. Or better yet, think of nothing and take a nap just because you’re sleepy and just because you can. Wake up happy.
There will be time enough for all the demands of your life in the next few days. But for the moment, all you want is to do absolutely nothing and JUST BE.
There is an upside to a quiet “staycation.” When you clear your mechanism and tune out the noise that invades your being, you may come to a rare state of grace — that state when you are thoroughly convinced that God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.
Unplug and be receptive. It is in the stillness that we find who we truly are. It is when we are quiet that we can listen to our thoughts and perhaps, listen to that still small voice that speaks to us.
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Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail [email protected]
