The best vacation spot

This is the time of year when I hear the question, “Where are you going on vacation?” Seems everyone takes some kind of vacation during the summer. Some folks take trips to exotic, faraway places. Others return each year to a familiar spot as comfortable as an old hammock.

Each year I look forward to our favorite destination: Litchfield Beach. People ask me what I did on vacation at the beach and I say, “It was the best vacation of all, I did nothing!” Actually that is not true, my days are spent reading a good book, trying my hand at cooking a few new recipes, taking naps, looking at the ocean and trying to spot a shark’s tooth in the sand as I take a daily stroll.

There is something mysterious and transforming about the sound of waves lapping against the sand, the smell of salt in the air and the mesmerizing horizon where the sky kisses the ocean. I can gaze at it for hours and always get this strange feeling that it is staring back at me.

Of course, you really don’t have to travel far to experience some of life’s best vacation spots. They might be as close as your own back yard. I remember reading about a famous naturalist who left his footprints all over the world. One year, however, he decided to spend the summer discovering his own backyard. Investigating all the insects, butterflies, birds and flowers that he never really took the time to notice. He said it was the best vacation of his life.

Elizabeth Sherrill, whose devotion, The Two Minute Vacation, was published in Guideposts magazine, tells of stopping for the night with her husband at a motel set in a grove of ancient live oaks. The next morning at breakfast, they were glancing over the menu, when they came across these words in The Oak’s Prayer for Today:

Slow me down Lord

Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind

Teach me the art of taking minute vacations

Of slowing down to look at the seashells, to chat with a friend, to pet a dog

Let me look up into the towering oaks and know

They grew great and strong because they grew slowly and well.

Take some time this summer to slow down and truly experience the world around you, even if it’s just for a minute. Who knows, it might be your best vacation yet.

PS. Since the first Monday of the New Year, I have been blogging. But now it's summer and I'm taking a blog vacation. Keep your eyes open though, guest bloggers are on the way.