Vacation Time! · Women's Empowerment Community

Vacation Time!

This week, I’m hopping on a plane and heading to Alabama to hang out with my friend, Kimberly, for 51 days.

It’s hard to believe that it’s finally happening! My flight leaves Tuesday. All my insurances are covered, and I know what I’m doing with my car. I’m parking it in airport parking, but not at the actual airport. I chose the place that I parked during my last trip because they have your car all ready for you when you arrive back. You hop off the airport shuttle, and into your warm car. And because it could be very cold when I return in January, I’m putting some extra blankets and my warm down-filled coat in my car. That’s another challenge when you go on vacation – the weather can vary a lot when you return home. For a small fee ($5/day) aggravation factor - Zero.

I’m in Alabama during three holidays – American Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. It’s interesting because not long ago, during Canadian Thanksgiving, I was thinking about how I will work on my perception of holidays. They have not had much meaning to me, and I wanted to learn to embrace the holiday for what it was intended. Now I get to experience a real American Thanksgiving. We see it in the movies, advertising, commercials for Black Friday. It’s a very different celebration than in Canada. For us, it’s an extended family dinner with turkey, but that’s really about it. Often, people think of it more as a day off of work than a day to be thankful. I guess they’re thankful for a day off of work.

Preparing for a vacation can be a lot, as many of you know. There’s so much planning and preparation, and it won’t always go as you wish. I have decided that more than a vacation, I am on an adventure. I am going to trust whatever happens, happens, and I will fully embrace it.

Some of my most memorable experiences have been when things go sideways - a 42 hour trip home from Australia spanning 5 countries and lost luggage. Flying to Wichita this past September to have the pilot do an emergency ‘slam on the brakes’ stop on the Denver runway. A straight line is awesome and a lot less stressful, but sometimes sh*t happens. At this phase in my life, I’m living in a snow globe - when things get shaken up, and the snow settles, I don’t know where I will end up but I’ll trust it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.

I actually don’t have a back up plan so may everything goes as expected. I just don’t want to become so attached to the outcome that I’m disappointed if it doesn’t go smoothly.

Something I am going to embrace is the waiting time at the airport. Usually everybody’s in their own world, with their own thoughts and stresses and excitement. I think I’m going to people watch, say hi to people, start conversations with willing participants.

Everybody has a story inside of them and I think I would like to ask a few people what their stories are. We all love to be seen and heard, and with curiosity, I would like to embrace the opportunity to speak to people about their reason for being at the airport.

I will be hosting this week’s Let’s Talk About… zoom from Alabama! The topic this week is detachment - just in case I need to remind myself at any time this week.

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