So, when I am writing this it is a cooler winter day here, and I am reminiscing about winters long past. I used to go to a wilderness area with my dad to take his dogs to run. I remember the snow coming up to my chest when I was really little. I would have to walk in my dad’s footprints to get through the snowdrifts. It was so quiet. All you could hear was us crunching through the new-fallen snow. Sometimes we would start as the sun came up and we would see the sun’s first light as it reflected off the snow that had stuck to the tree branches during the snowstorm the night before.
I tell you this not only to call you down and slow your thinking with a peaceful memory of mine but to start my jotting about another way to relax. So, when I remembered that event with my dad, I realized it was kind of like taking a vacation. Then, it dawned on me. I had been taking a mental vacation to this same woods probably once or twice a week for years. It was my oasis. I can see different parts of it in different seasons as easily as tying my shoes.
Now I was thinking if I could create an oasis why couldn’t anyone. And I was thinking if you didn’t have a real place, I am betting you want to travel somewhere and have seen pictures of it or you have seen a place that evoked a calming response. And of course, there is the option of creating the perfect place in your head. You know like you did when you were a kid creating a magical kingdom to transport yourself and your favorite cat to meet the handsome prince and fight the dragon, who turns out to be nice and ends up becoming your new pet.
So, I know you’re asking, “Why should I create an oasis, Mrs. Tea?”
Well, I have an excellent answer to that question. A Vacation. A real-life vacation.
“Now, Mrs. Tea, how is this really a vacation?” you’re asking.
Do you see what is going on around you like a vacation? Can you go sightseeing on your mental vacation? Can you skip all the long lines in your mental vacation? Can you have the perfect weather on your vacation? If you don’t want to fly you don’t have to or if you just want to fly around and that be your vacation so, be it.
Are you following me on creating this oasis? This mental vacation? I bet you are.
So today when you have a moment because it only takes a moment, take a vacation. The kind that is in your mind. The kind that doesn’t cost any money, but leaves a lasting mark on your whole day or maybe even week. I know that I have a walk to take in that same set of trees in the summertime when the queen Anne's lace and black-eyed Susans are in bloom. I might take a dog or two along for company.
I hope you can find a place to go. A place to relax. Maybe enjoy the summer’s sun or the wind on a cool fall day. There are so many places to go.
Hint to all those real adventures-You know you could go grab that dragon once again if you so desire. It never hurt to be that kid once again that had an imagination 100 times bigger than themselves.