If July is Saturday, then August is Sunday
As my big fat long teacher-holidays move into their final few weeks -- moving from the Saturday feeling of July to the Sunday feeling of August, I’ve been contemplating vacations generally and mine in particular. My mind has turned to the various types of vacations a person can have. Today, I’m contemplating noisy city time vs natural lake time.
I fantasize about holidaying in New York City and Chicago, visiting theatres and galleries and museums, eating out, strolling down streets packed with people and vibrating with energy. But I always end up at the cottage for my vacations.
The big city would be about going places, seeing things and experiencing the noisy metropolitan hubbub, while the cottage is about being in wide open spaces, thinking, contemplating and creating.
As soon as we pull into the driveway and see Lake Winnipeg ahead of us, I can feel my shoulders relax, my mind settle and my energy expand. After the immediate bustle of unloading the car, putting things away, opening windows, time seems to slow down. There is, literally, more space around us (fewer neighbours who are less close than at our city home) and there is, figuratively, more room to enjoy being in.
Without the external pressures that urban living inevitably brings with it, time at the cottage is given over to being as we are and making do with what is at hand. That’s what makes it simple and easy. There’s no dashing out for some last-minute can’t-do-without item for supper or for the current project. We either use what’s on hand and work around what’s missing, or we change the plan. That seems more difficult to do in our city home/life.
The more time I have at the cottage the more deeply I get into the groove of this very enjoyable mode of being. We spend more time reading books and doing art, going for bike rides and just simply talking with each other, in large part, I think, because we have no internet service (other than via our iPhones). This, alone, creates a slower, more nature-focused pace of living. It’s sometimes so slow, in fact, that I catch myself napping on the sofa in the gazebo. They say that a change is as good as a rest, and when that change includes Clifftop Cottage, then it’s really true.
One of these days, I’ll make it to one of the big cities for a holiday, but, for the moment, the proximity and ease of the cottage draws me to it and, to date, seduces me most satisfactorily with its (not always, but often enough) tranquil setting.
In the noise vs nature debate, I currently gravitate towards the nature side.
In the noise vs nature debate, I currently gravitate towards the nature side.
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| Stormy clouds over Lake Winnipeg from Clifftop Cottage |
You are so fortunate to have Clifftop Cottage for a restful break in life's quotidian drama. I just read Louise Penny's August newsletter, and she tells of her mother, who got less comfortable the farther she got from her couch. We used to travel more frequently than in the past two years, but always my favorite vacations have been those we spent in the French countryside, just being, not rushing to see this site or sight. This year I've not wanted to be far from my couch.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best benefit of retirement is the absence of that Sunday feeling. Each morning both Julie and I check to see what day it is. Pure bliss.
Later this month, I get my annual week of lakefront cottage life, almost exactly as you have described here. I love the trips I have recently taken to New York, London, and Montréal - those exciting urban hubs - but that one week in northern Ontario with the loons calling, and that lone bald eagle circling overhead while I float in the pristine lake - this is heaven.
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