Sorry it has been so long since my last entry. I have just returned from a blissful holiday. Consider this a belated postcard!
A few things I did on my holiday that I don't do usually (or visa versa)...
- Read entire books. I love to read books, but I rarely finish them. It's really silly. I just get overwhelmed with the choices available to me (as a result of my rampant spending on The Book Depository) and continually start new books, leaving others by the wayside. Before I left for my holiday, I had six books on the go. It was refreshing to settle down with just one, consume it wholly, and take the time to contemplate its meaning.
- Stayed offline. Okay, okay. I kept in touch with my twitter feed and Instapaper-ed countless articles and blog posts to read when I got home. But I didn't browse, I didn't toggle, I didn't surf, I didn't email. And it didn't kill me. Far from it.
- Wrote by hand. When I am home, I use my laptop to write. Everything. But for the week I was away, I just hand-wrote, like old days. And it was nice, to get into the flow of things.
- Early mornings. Actually, I had been waking up early prior to the holiday. But with a struggle. Three "snooze" buttons. Forcing my eyes open, reluctantly. But when there is a beach at your doorstep (I took the picture above from my room), getting up for a run at 6am is incredibly inviting. And so my daily inner struggle was vanquished.
- Long evening meals. My dinners are often quick. Or lonesome. Or both. I live in a house (actually, two houses) full of people, but we are all on different schedules or diets, so we rarely eat as a unit. On holiday, however, we were all free from those commitments and resolutions. We ate on the veranda, engaged in flowing conversation and slowly ate our three courses in the evening summer breeze.
- Acting on a whim, without hesitation. Usually, I painstakingly plan my days. I write lists of "things to do", and schedule my days around them. (I won't give an example of those lists because the life of a university student during university break is embarrassingly cruisey. I didn't really need a holiday!) Whimsy is a much more fun, instinctual way to do things.
These are all little things but they made such a difference to my vitality and the pleasure I took in the everyday... It just shows how, in my day-to-day life, I tend to let things slip by, and fail to live in the moment, to be wholly present. It only takes small changes to make life more delightful.
