Add a Dash of Vacation Vibe to Daily Life
Try this: prompts for the real world
Dear Beauty Hunters,
It’s Day 2 of the full-body souvenir embrace of Italy—aka “jet lag.”
Renaming the cocktail of fatigue and melancholy a “souvenir” is my attempt to lipstick-the-pig of time change, to beautify the fierce disorientation and inability to focus on anything other than WHERE THE HELL TO TRAVEL TO NEXT?
(So far I’ve checked out swim trips to Croatia, Sardinia, and Turkey; walking and e-bike trips in Europe, and have hammered away on AlaskaAir.com to see where in this world, not USA, I can use all those FF miles—as it turns out, basically nowhere!).
In the meantime, I’m squashing the true souvenir gift of my two-week Italian experience: the amazing people and customs, epiphanies and insights made surrounded by art, history; mountain peaks, and snow Saharas, all of which I could be contemplating and integrating into my day and work, my conversations at home with my husband.
I’m not really listening to my husband expound on how happy he is that I’m home and what he plans to do with the giant pile of dirt that just arrived (his beloved mountain peak), because I’m off “planning” a walking trip in the UK . . . or France . . . or . . . thoughts? I’m lost in the clouds of seeking (next trip), sighing and groaning (“so tirrred”), and definitely in the mode of anywhere-but-here-ism. Which was not how I was on vacation in Venice, Balzano, and the Italian Alps.
One could say there’s a wisp of beauty in this melancholic holiday aftermath, a bit the way a heartbreak can be beautiful because its main ingredient is love.
Here’s your prompt—in two parts:
💥Imagine that daily life—a Wednesday morning preparing for a day at work, say— is as adventure-y and filled with whimsy and surprise as skiing through the Dolomites or getting lost in the nutty labyrinth of Venice at night. How does your experience shift even the teensiest-tiniest bit?
A stretch, you say? Fair enough, but let’s go with it. Our minds & imaginations are power forces! Now let’s take it one step further.
💥Pick a day this week to put on your vacation lenses. Maybe it’s a weekend, maybe it’s an hour at a cafe you don’t usually go to, maybe it’s on a walk or bike ride off the beaten path—and imagine you’re in a new place. Look for the dashes of adventure-possibilities that flicker around you; reorient yourself in the direction of slowing down and paying attention to everything, the way you might on a vacation in a new city or country.
Go on a “trip” in your own backyard, and tell us what you see there. Xo
