Time off, for most working adults, means anything from a fifteen minute coffee break to a lay off of a year or more. Neither is very satisfactory. The coffee break is too short, and the lay off is painfully long because the laid off worker rarely gets paid.
This week I am taking time off. That word taking is important. No one is giving it to me; no one is granting permission. I am my own boss. Anyone self-employed for any amount of time knows how difficult it is to really take time off. I haven’t done that in more than five years. I’ve always taken my work with me whenever I traveled. It is both a benefit and a pain that an author can work anywhere.
However, I need a vacation, a real, turn off the phone and the computer and just live in the moment vacation. I need one for both my mental and physical health, and for the health of my work. (Writer’s often call this filling the well.) Part of the problem with my vacations is that I live where I can see sunsets like this one nearly every night. Where does a person with a view like that–pretty darned close to paradise–go on vacation?
Me? I’ve traveled enough to see about one quarter of the world (north western hemisphere). It is my ambition to see most of the rest of it. So what exotic local is my destiantion for this vacation? Chicago. Chicago is not exotic–at least not to me. I’ve been there many times, and if feels an awful lot like many other cities in the good old US of A. However, this city is rich in museums, unique history, unique architecture and a host of, yet to be discovered by me byways and neighborhoods. I probably won’t see them all, ever. Especially on this trip where my purpose is to take time off with friends. The friends are my true destination.
I hope every one of you reading this gets to have the vacation of your dreams. Wherever that may be, include an old friend or make a new one. Please comment and let me know where you’d like to go and why.
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