Time to Vacate

This weekend, my family will drive down to one of our favorite places in the world–Avon, North Carolina, part of the Outer Banks. We’ll settle into the oceanfront house we’ve rented. We’ll enjoy long walks on the beach. We’ll eat out a few times. We’ll bask in the sun and play in the sand and those who are allowed to submerge (which doesn’t include me this year, thanks to surgery) will likely swim in the waves while I wade in to cool off.

Vacation.

Our family discovered well over a decade ago that September in the Outer Banks is absolute perfection (barring hurricanes), by our definition. The weather is warm but not sweltering, the water is still warm, the beaches are empty, and the prices are slashed, compared to summer. We can, in fact, get 2 weeks for the price of 1 in June.

So…we did. Which is a first for us.

See, for us, vacation isn’t about going someplace new to do things. We do enjoy those sorts of trips…but they’re usually as exhausting as they are exciting, so they’re not what we consider vacation. For us, vacation is about relaxing. Unwinding. Refilling our creative wells. For us, vacation is about letting the ocean air blow away the year’s frustrations and the sun ignite new dreams.

Vacations are where we dream.

It was on vacation in recent years that we:

• Decided to film my classes
• Decided to add merchandise to my shop and started selecting it
• Brainstormed On Wings of Devotion
• Brainstormed A Noble Scheme
• Brainstormed Awakened

Just a few examples, obviously. But some of those ideas have turned into big parts of my business, and others have turned into books that are among my fan-favorites.

It takes a couple days though, sometimes, for us to get our brains into “dreaming” gear. Some years, we’ve been able to start dreaming on the way down, in the car. Sometimes we at least take time to chat about what we want to dream about while we’re there. Then we need to let the time away, the beauty of the landscape, the familiar pulse of the tides work its magic. Blow away the cobwebs.

Our last vacation was in December, since we couldn’t do summer or fall last year thanks to my treatments. And it was fun but…different. It took me until the last couple days to really get my brain out of that “recovery” mode that usually only lasts a day or two. I did a lot of lounging and reading, but my body and brain were just so tired after everything I’d been through that dreaming barely had any time.

Which was what made me yearn for some more time, this September. More than a week, as a celebration of cancer treatments being truly over and life getting back to some semblance of normal (whatever that is, LOL). So we booked two weeks, for the price of one during either summer in OBX or even December in the Keys. And we let out a long sigh, realizing that this time, we’re not going to have to try to squeeze things in. We’re going to be able to relax and dream and create, even.

See, my goal is to start writing The Island Bakeshop while I’m down there, where the book is set. And I’m excited for that. Usually my goal is to not write on vacation, unless I start something just for fun (like the 9 pages of notes I took on Awakened a couple years ago). I brainstorm, yes, but that’s just a matter of letting the story spin out in the breeze, getting to the know the characters, figuring out their secrets. (The big middle twist in A Noble Scheme? Yeah, I had no idea what that was when I turned in A Beautiful Disguise, no idea what had come between the characters. So we chatted about it on a walk, and I can still see the beach in my mind, the angle of the sun, still feel the wind kissing my face as I realized what had torn Gemma and Graham apart. I believe I said something along the lines of, “Oh…oh. I know what it was.” And then laid it out for David.)

But with two weeks, I know I can relax, refill, and create. That the creation will serve to fill me even more. And I am so, so excited. (And since I’ll be treating half the trip as a writing retreat, I get to write it off on my taxes, LOL. Score!) I’m excited to unwind. I’m excited to go back to a place I love, which I missed last year when cancer got in the way of our usual tradition. I’m excited to visit the bookstores that were my inspiration for The Island Bookshop, to sign their stock, to take some cell-phone videos of their awesome shops. I’m excited to dig my toes into the sand, to walk along the empty dunes, to see the sea turtle nesting sites. I’m excited to plot and plan and play with stories.

This year, vacation will have some doing in there, yes. But it’s the kind of doing that’s part of my being. And just being is what we cherish on our vacations. No expectations, no schedules, no rules. Just doing what we love, basking in the glory of God’s creation, listening for His voice, talking about things that matter, and spinning those dreams.

What sorts of vacations do you prefer? Doing vacations or being vacations? Where is your favorite place to go?