One of the things I like most about travel is that it gets me out of my regular routine. Even common-place activities like having breakfast or taking a morning walk are different, engaging my senses and attention in a way I wish happened more often at home.
That’s especially true with foreign travel, when even little things like taking a shower or paying for a restaurant meal require full thought and attention. It’s like enforced mindfulness combined with mini adventures. But even vacationing closer to home offers some of that, when all my indoor and outside physical spaces are different.
I took my first out-of-town trip as a retiree this week. It wasn’t a multi-week overseas adventure this time, but it was still fun: My husband and I met my sister in Asheville, NC, and I also got to see a friend from work who lives there now.
It was definitely different traveling as a retiree. I felt more relaxed just knowing that the trip wasn’t part of a scarce few weeks of yearly vacation. This stage of life is full of contradictions, time-wise. On one hand, I’m becoming keenly aware that I don’t have unlimited time left in my life, in a more visceral way than when I was younger. Yes, I always knew in my head that I won’t live forever. But now that I’m older, I feel like I really know. And, I also know that even if I live for many more years, I might not feel healthy and energetic enough to do a lot of travel for all of them.
At the same time, though, knowing that I wasn’t heading back to work next week made the overall experience more mellow. I felt less time pressure to cram as much as possible into this “vacation” than I did when I took paid vacations while working.
In other words . . .
Overall time left: shorter. Time this month when I can do what I choose instead of what I have to: W-a-a-a-a-y longer.
Did I see everything I might have with my new, less frenetic travel pace? No. Did I enjoy what we did see? Definitely. And at this point, that’s what feels like matters.
For example, a few hours enjoying the North Carolina Arboretum, including lunch outside on the cafe patio there, followed by a bit of wandering around downtown Asheville felt fine as a day’s itinerary. I didn’t need to talk my travel companions into also doing a walking tour or driving to see other parts of the region, which I likely would have done in the past.
Also new: I didn’t have to stop myself from checking work e-mail. I didn’t have to spend a couple of days winding down from my “work self” before getting into “vacation mode.” And I didn’t have to catch myself thinking about work and try to redirect my thoughts.
What I found both interesting and surprising, is that without work to focus on when I got home, I had more mental energy to see my “usual” life with somewhat fresh eyes. And a few things struck me after four days away:
As luxurious as it’s been the past three weeks to lounge in bed many mornings reading until 9:30 or 10 before getting up to start my day, that does cut down on available do-interesting-things time. I got an earlier start while in North Carolina, and the days seemed more satisfying. I think I’ll be ready to set an alarm again soon, especially as days get shorter and I don’t want to waste precious available daylight.
I may be ready soon to add some more activity to my schedule. I was fine with a few back-to-back-to-back mostly full days while we were away. My battery is recharging.
Spending time in a lovely historic inn that is not cluttered with my lifetime of things made me realize anew that I have a lot of stuff in our house that I don’t love or use anymore. I don’t enjoy a lot of the indoor spaces we have as much as I used to. I’d like to start crafting a more peaceful and less cluttered environment.
Decluttering will be on the agenda once the weather turns bad!
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