Vacation ends.

Call it the weekend-phenomenon.  Good things seem to wrap up just as they are getting started. It’s the truth, and it hurts, but it wouldn’t be vacation if it went on forever.

Boo.

A friend writes on Facebook:

Every morning during our break, our little boy has woken us up with a long snuggle and a game of “Cars Memory” (or two, or three) in bed. I am desperately going to miss this morning ritual when we go back to our working reality tomorrow. I have decided I want to be a millionaire so that we can all just stay home like this together forever. Any ideas?

Many families have enjoyed recent blessings of time together, parents with kids, kids with grandparents, cousins with cousins.  This is what the holidays have come to wholly signify for so many of us.  The essential goodness of all the festivities, planning, treats, and spangles funnels into the moment when we are able to put obligations aside and melt into it all with ones we love.  Regardless of religion, world-view, status or location, most folks will tell you that it’s time with family or time at home that makes the holiday authentic and comforting.

So what to do when it ends? There’s been so much support in the form of free-time, good food, happy music and tradition.  What happens when your husband goes back to work or your kids return to school, or your parents fly back to Oregon?  What happens?

Here’s what happens: take a moment to breathe it all in.  Breathe in what made the holiday special.  Breathe in what makes The Now special too.  Breathe in the blessings that made the memories, but also breathe in the blessings that make The Now elemental and pristine. Breathe in that you can breathe in.

If you need it, do something to spruce up your stale feeling toward routine.  Use your smooth, earth-toned pottery coffee cup, or treat yourself to a steaming-hot and fragrant cinnamon roll.  But friend, be warned: even the little lovelies melt in the face of weekend-phenomena. There will reliably come a time when calm and satisfaction must be found in the banal, immediate and not-so-fancy.

The careful way you make your bed with proper placement of the soft pillows on the smooth sheets. The precision of a freshly sharpened pencil during pressure-filled homework moments. The unfailing tidiness of your long list of unanswered emails.  Those touchstones, as unattractive and tense and they may seem, are lovely too.

Keep space between the tasks; anxiety, worry and irritation must not rule the day.  The weekend will come again, the vacation will return.  Until then, don’t pollute The Now with disappointment.

It’s all good.

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Jill Barth of Illinois, USA. She can be found blogging at Small Things Honored

Photo credit to Ava Lowery.  This photo has a creative commons attribution license. 

Jill Barth

Jill Barth lives in Illinois with her husband and three kids. She reminds you to breathe. She is a freelance writer and consultant. Also, she is the green content Team Leader and columnist at elephantjournal.com and reads fiction for Delmarva Review. Jill's writing can be found on her blog, Small Things Honored.

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