Getting Away From It All

My wife and I just returned from an absolutely gorgeous trip to the beautiful garden isle of Kaua'i.  For both of us, it was our first ever Spring Break trip -- every other Spring Break for the rest of our lives, we've stayed at home.  After the hectic spring we'd had, it was more than a little tempting to do the same this time around. 

Vacations are fun, no doubt about it, but they're also a lot of work and hassle.  Start with the actual booking and planning for the trip.  Then there's all the pre-trip preparations, such as packing, readying your house for your extended absence, stopping mail service, making sure all your perishable food is gone from the fridge so you don't return to a hazmat team in your kitchen -- all that good stuff.  Add in actually getting to your destination (which for us meant hours in airports and even more hours sitting on airplanes), and the sheer volume of effort of making the vacation happen can suddenly seem overwhelming.

The alternative, of course, is staying right at home for a week.  Wouldn't that be better?  No packing or planning, no hussle, no pat-downs at airport security.  Just spend the week at home sleeping in and taking it easy.

The problem (especially for a Creative) is two fold:

1. You won't actually rest.  Huh?  What do you mean?  Of course you'll rest. 

Well, yes, for a day or two, but then you'll realize that you're at home, and you should really get the garden hose out of the garage and hook it up since spring is here.  Oh, and the trees need pruned.  There's grass to mow.  The hall closet needs cleaned out -- it's a mess.  And the floors?  Suppose you should clean the windows, too.  And then ....

We stay home with the very best of intentions, but no matter how good those intentions, you're still at home, and being at home -- and I don't care if you rent or own -- means being around your obligations.  You can't be around your obligations for very long before you feel compelled to pay attention to them ... and then you're not resting any more: you're back at work, albeit a different type of work. 

They don't call a vacation "getting away from it all" without reason: when you get out of town, away from your work and school and church and family, there's no chance you'll spend your time working without realizing it.  Instead, you'll give your mind and body and soul some much-needed down-time, a chance to rest and rejuvenate, which is the purpose of the vacation in the first place.

2. You won't feed and recharge your creative soul.  The essence of creativity is novelty -- looking at something completely new, or at something old in a new way.  When you stay at home, it's so much harder to provide your creative soul with the new sensations and experiences it will translate into your newest work. 

I just think about scenery: in Kaua'i, I saw mountains, cliffs, beaches, ocean, palm trees, bougainvillea -- all things in short (okay, non-existent) supply in Indiana.  The next time I need some inspiration, some feeling of new-ness to jump-start a piece of music, I need only think back on this vacation, and my mental storehouses are replete with images and sensations to put me in that mindspace.  Had I just stayed at home, I would have had images, but they would have been old, comfortable, familiar: corn fields, grass, maple trees, corkscrew willow.  They're images that tell me that I'm home, but creativity isn't about staying at home -- it's about journeying forth (even if it's only mentally or spiritually) to explore new landscapes.


Yes, the trip back from Kaua'i was more of a hassle than we'd hoped for, and it's been hard to get back into the everyday routine, but I find myself bursting with new ideas and new enthusiasm for all my creative projects (and even some new ones) that I never would have had if I had simply stayed at home.  Every time I contemplate taking a "staycation" instead of getting away, I just remind myself of the therapy it will give my soul ... and then start looking to make hotel reservations.