GOING ON VACATION
By Annie Benjamin
After 6 months of retirement my husband and I went off on a two week trip to St John. We have gone every year for 8 years, and I wondered how not working would effect my need for and my enjoyment of time away from home. What I found surprised me:
I no longer felt a desperate need to “get away” and “slow down”. Instead it was as if I saw the beauty and serenity around me for the first time. I was truly AWAKE. And in the same manner I did not feel an overwhelming sense of loss and deprivation when we left. I had realized that peace within myself. It had always been there but I had not been able to listen to my soul.
This to me has been the most important result of my decision to follow my heart. I loved spending those hours on St John snorkeling with my husband and staring at the sea, glass of wine in hand. But I didn’t need those experiences to feel happy and balanced.
For so many years I have heard my yoga teachers say that we are already perfect we just need to feel that. I always felt that this meant a sort of “out of body” experience something separate from my day to day existence. I now understand that it is just the opposite. Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heart states:
“A true spiritual path demands something more challenging what could be called an “in-the-body experience.” We must connect to… our feelings, to our life just now, if we are to awaken.”
I truly feel present in the way I live and how I feel and therefore don’t need an ABSENCE from my every day existence to feel at peace.
Vacation is now a pleasure not a necessity.
