Chronicle of a Brief Escape from the Everyday

This past week, I had the opportunity to get away for a few days, in part visiting old friends in a place I used to live and in part revisiting some old haunts and taking in the sights on my own. I traveled solo, something I’m finding suits me and I imagine other introverted, sensitive people would find as well. It’s fewer people to care for and tend to, only attending to my own needs for food, fresh air, movement and company as I pleased. Not to say that travelling with family or a group doesn’t have its own pleasures.

Like many older cities around the U.S., new housing is being built and some old housing restored and converted to short-term rental units. As these newer rentals start up, I’m finding reasonable deals through a site called www.booking.com, on which you can earn discounts on bookings with more stays. Alas, as the units gain reviews with more stays, the deals likely won’t last. But, in the meantime, it’s allowed me to stay in different areas of the city whenever I visit, offering a different experience.

We did nothing particularly exciting or noteworthy to others which was . . . sort of the point. We attended a festival and checked out an old cemetery which offers up lots of history and just chilled. I dined leisurely, sometimes solo, sometimes skipping eating regular meals (probably not recommended), but I wasn’t tied to a schedule for eating which I often am at home. Cooking is a hobby for me and, as with anything, I can find myself obsessing over it, from figuring out what to make, doing the shopping for the ingredients and carving out the time to prepare the meal. While away, I spent about zero time obsessing over any of that. It was pretty nice, actually, and almost no one needed me to fix something or make any decisions of any import.

It’s good to unplug and take a break from the everyday sameness. It helps me gain some new perspective. Like many people, I imagine, I’ve felt my world getting smaller since the pandemic, or maybe that’s age - we won’t go there - so I have to be more intentional to get out of my comfort zone.

While away, I (wisely) listened to little news and largely tuned out the broader world, another thing worth escaping now and then - reality, not only our own but all the stuff out there. Unless you’re living under a rock or in a cave, I imagine you know we in the U.S. are struggling hard as a country right now, for a myriad of reasons. I have faith that we’ll right the ship, but it’s likely to be neither quick nor painless.

In the meantime, I saw this sage advice on another Substack -

Best mental reset l've learned:

If your mind is loud - Write.

If your mind is empty - Read.

If your mind is racing - Walk.

If your mind is tired - Sleep.

If your mind is sharp - Build.

Most problems are just mismatched energy.

Get the inputs right, the rest follows.

We here in the eastern U.S. have been enjoying some great early fall weather. I hope you’re enjoying some of the same, wherever you are.

Peace.