When we are removed from the daily grind and have a chance to just be…it becomes evident how necessary those moments really are. I get it. Technology is fundamental in this day. Routine is the name of our game. Responsibilities exist. And wearing the same clothes for two days in a row isn’t an ideal MO. But sometimes it’s perfectly okay and the argument against is unlikely to hold up in a court of life.
Have your summer months been relaxing or ridiculous? If you’re anything like us, it’s the latter. And then August enters and we get a reprieve for a few weeks before the new fall season starts. June and July are mostly a blur. They were filled with summer sports and all-consuming activities. Late nights, carpools, fast food and fatigue. But the final month of the season is here and I’m going to do a lot less driving and a little more dreaming.
It’s hard to unplug. It’s hard to let go. And it’s awfully hard to truly unwind. Why is that?! Because that means your house isn’t going to get cleaned. The laundry is going to pile up. The kids will be bored. Your Facebook notifications become obscenely outrageous. And well, you’ll sleep when you’re dead, right? We are doing it all wrong! Our world is full of command. Worthless requirements. Elevated expectations. And a handful of superficial burdens. I fall victim to all of them. Perhaps you do, too. It’s life. It’s what we know. And it’s what we do. But every now and then I’m certain that it’s perfectly okay to ditch the demands, turn off the technology, get a little dirty and take an afternoon nap. And believe me, this is tough stuff to give into. I’m a girl who requires routine. I tend to hyperventilate without an agenda. And dirt? Well, let’s just say I have some serious stock in OxiClean. But then my family steps away for a bit. We leave our daily digs and take refuge by the lake. We go without cell phone service. We spend time with [extended] family. The kids run around. They get dirty. They get sweaty. But the only thing we have to do is call them in to eat. We don’t have to entertain and we don’t have to drive. So we sit on the deck and drink. We sit on the boat and drink. We sit by the fire…and drink. We eat. Too much. And too often. We laugh. A lot. We take naps. We wear clothes more than once. And it’s all positively delightful.
But all good things must come to an end. 
So we return. And we dive back into our day to day. The campfire feeling doesn’t last forever but it offers a small reminder that it’s okay to enjoy a piece of summer without specification. And it’s okay to let the duties drift a bit. Because for every command and demand that drives us to deliver, we should have a channel that brings us back. One that grants us permission to help remember that our lives are only as good as the memories we make, not the chaos that we create.
Weakness for Words 