Sliding into summer -- cold turkey on blogging

Steven contemplates the menu at
The Sandpiper restaurant
in Pugwash, Nova Scotia
black marker on bond paper
10 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

I remember when I had a full time office job that it
used to feel that the few weeks before my vacation
were on a downhill slide. It wasn't that I wasn't
working as hard, or thinking about my job, I
was probably working harder, and doing more.
But people's voices and demands played in my ears
in a kind of slow mo distortion. The time had definitely come
for some R. and R. -- kicking back with my husband
and kids.

Walking the beach at sunset -- this is the view I
saw this summer.
I craved this very scene with all of my being.
Sometimes in the whir of business, the soul
takes over, and says -- enough. We need to listen.

This summer I felt that once again. I really needed
to get off the merry ride of my life, and sit. I wanted
more than anything to do nothing, listen to the birds
and waves at the sea shore, walk on the beach -- read,
read, read!

So I did. And now a happy reveler I'm back.
I missed you so much. At first I read your blogs,
but out at our school house we don't always even
get dial up Internet. I knew I didn't want to spend my holiday
focusing on when and where I could get a computer
hook up. That's been my reality for more than two years.

Sunset on a cloudy day. Pure colour. My love of
this beach, and this experience knows no bounds.

I'm back in the city, refreshed and renewed. But as
my sister said one of her friends said about her
vacation, " I do have stories..."

Have a taking-a-real-vacation day.