Dispatch from the road home

Every vacation needs real down time. While it is true that all that beach walking and time out of doors has been just what I needed, by Sunday, what I needed was to prioritize rest and reading.

Reading’s ability to beam you up to a different world is a good part of the reason people like me do it in the first place – because dollar for dollar, hour per hour, it’s the most expedient way to get from our proscribed little “here” to an imagined, intriguing “there.”

Sara Nelson, So Many Books, So Little Time

So like most of my Sundays, I parked myself in a comfy chair and cracked open some of those books I brought with me. Some pleasure reading, some non-fiction, and a bit of the Sunday papers. Perfect.

I stirred myself for a beach walk at dusk, and opted for the crashing waves at Nauset Beach rather than the low tide sunset on the bay side. And I had my best dinner of vacation – a simple spaghetti and meatballs meal at La Bella Vita.

Monday was time to go home… One more walk on the beach for good measure. Big change for my afternoon walk, which was on the campus of Yale near my midpoint hotel. Since that walk was cut short by a thunderstorm, I hope to get out again for a bit in the morning before I get on the road home.

Taking that meditative feeling home…

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every time I walk on the beach (and sometimes out in nature), I pick up and carry a stone. I have a theory that holding that stone infuses it with a bit of that positive energy and I keep them on my dresser and on my desk to fidget with when I need a boost.

Here’s my collection from this trip, along with a new coaster tile I bought for my office. “Take time” is the mantra I’ll take home as a reminder.

This is the life.