Things Learned While Sitting on the Balcony
Room to Think
Couple more days and the vacation is coming to a close. It’s been a great one, folks. I thought about lying to you all to make my vacation sound a bit more adventurous and exciting…like saying I stayed awake for 48 hours, climbed a mountain, swam across the ocean naked, or even fought a bear and won. However, I didn’t do any of those things. My life for the last 7 days has consisted of sleeping, eating, napping, sunning, swimming, napping, eating, running, and reading. Maybe a little bit of shopping mixed in (Ry let me get the new Vera Bradley purse I’ve been eyeing for weeks). And that. Is. All. It took a few days to get used to doing nothing. It is a weird feeling sitting down to read on the balcony and to not feel like I need to get up fold laundry or unload the diswasher. Guilt, I have found, it quite self-imposed. Unfortunately now that I’ve gotten used to this lazy, slower pace of life, it’s almost time to jump back into reality. Sad day.
Anyway, I have learned a few things while sitting on the balcony. Things I probably wouldn’t have realized if I wasn’t forced to take the time to slow down and relax.
- I can have meaningful conversations with my husband that do not involve work, stress, or money. We’ve had some of the best talks this week about dreams, what we want out of life, and utter nonsense. It’s like being kids again! It just proves to me that we choose on a daily basis to let things stress us and our marriage and we can also choose to feel like this too. I pray that we can find some time every night or week to sit on our proverbial balcony and chat.
- I’m not a very good pool sunning person. I get antsy, hate the feel of the sunscreen oil, hate being hot with sweat dripping down my face and not wanting to wipe it off for fear of wiping off the sunscreen. I get bored. And then I come in, sit in the shade of the balcony and see all the new freckles that I gained for that hour in the sun. Ry and I have decided that we need to put some serious research into faux tanning before our next vacation. Although I’ve had a great giggle at Ry trying to relax at the pool. Poor fella has the most sensitive eyes of any person I know and his eyes water like he’s crying a river. But he stuck it out there trying to get a tan.
- Even on vacation I don’t sleep past 7:30 (at the latest) and then I’m out on the balcony drinking some java. Maybe I can’t sleep late anymore? I don’t know. Ry is the same way. He’s beat me out of bed every day this week!
- While sitting on the balcony I realized that all the pressure I put on myself to perform is just that- pressure I put on MYSELF. Coach B is only asking me to do what I can to the best of my ability. He’s not asking me to be better than the next girl or the fella before me. CrossFit can only make me a better athlete if I let it and get my ego out of the way. I can’t be a stronger runner if I chose not to run because I’m afraid I can’t. Why are thoughts so clear when sitting outside with nothing but air and trees in the distance?
- I learned just how much my cats are a part of Ry and I’s lives. Goodness, if we said it once we said it a dozen times, “I wonder what _______ is into right now?” And then we’d laugh. But everyday the laughs get a little more sad because we miss the cats. Couple more days and then they will give us the greeting we are accustomed to when we leave for a while. They will pointedly ignore us for a while, just to prove how mad they are that we left. After a few hours one cat will finally want some lovies and then we’ll get all 3. It’s heavenly.
- Sunsets and sunrises are a gift from God when to take the time to sit and enjoy them.
I hope you all have a chance at some point to get away and reflect on life from the balcony. After 7 days of it I’m convinced it’s the best medicine you can take to cure a stressed life and to figure some things out.
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Balconies are wonderful for things like that. Have a great vacation and travel safe.