I’m posting quite late this week, but wanted to squeeze in a brief hello before the week is out.
Having set the challenge for myself to post once a week this year, I’ve officially made it to the halfway point. The feeling is similar to the sense of satisfaction I experienced at this time last year during my photo-a-day challenge.
Summer and school breaks are always a struggle for me (and I suspect most people) from a mindfulness standpoint. Travel schedules interfere with my meditation practice. Being present with family, friends, and life experience — the whole point of mindfulness, after all — competes with my writing and photography goals.
Between July and August, I will have flown from Virginia to Washington State or Oregon three times, plus moved my son back to college (an 11-hour drive each way). I’m writing from Seattle today, enjoying the bliss of a few quiet moments. I still have one-and-a-half coast-to-coast flights ahead of me before the month is out.
When a mindful friend shared the poem below, it seemed a perfect way to explain why my writing and photography sharing have slowed down the past couple of months.
Unlike in previous years, I haven’t let myself feel too stressed about dialing back my “should do” list this summer. It feels better to be part of the picture itself.
The Vacation
By Wendell Berry
Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.
How are you doing managing the challenges and rewards of summer? Are you inside the picture or just planning and recording it?
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John Whalen says
Enjoyed this Martha!
Safe travels ?
Martha Brettschneider says
Thanks, John! Back home for a few breathing days (while also helping my son pack for college). Off tomorrow for Atlanta, then back to Oregon next week for my niece’s wedding. Feeling grateful! Happy summer to you ~ Martha