Aug 7, 2016

My successful staycation!

My balcony door is open to the warm evening. A few light cirrus clouds in the sky. Wind calming down for the day. My skin is sun kissed from afternoon hours facing west.

After delivering 43 minutes of bonus material accompanying the documentary of the Umeå entrepreneur Krister Olsson at the end of June, I decided on taking July off. Like vacation. Last summer was all intense work because of the documentary, and the summer before filled with personal and private difficulties. It was time for some time off, finally!

Vacation. In my case staycation, as I can’t move around and transport myself anywhere. So, how to have vacation at the place where I spend all my regular time and within the home care routines regulating my days?

Well, first of all, no work. No work within my profession and no work that’s very similar to my profession, although voluntary.

Number 2. No digging into difficulties. I have this thing. Whenever I (very rarely) am entering a quite period, I feel this need to pick one of the tough topics on my Difficult List and do something about it. Oftentimes unsolved conflicts or difficult relationships eating me. But no, nothing from my Difficult List was allowed on my summer vacation 2016. 

Those were the No. So what about the Yes?! And what did I want to do?

Well, it turned out the question wasn’t that easy to answer. Most things I long for are impossible because of my situation. So I had to look for it through my close up glasses.

I wanted to be in the sun! So that’s my first promise, stay in the sun every minute possible and enjoy it! What more? Why not listen to music? Due to how my days are layed out, keeping music on doesn’t have natural space anymore, I could change that. 

I am peaking into my summer closet. All those cloths I just love! Summer 2015 was really crappy weather wise so I didn’t get to wear any of it. Ok, that will be my next promise - no walking around in old spotted t-shirts because it’s just me here, no, every day wearing something nice for myself!

What more? Well, there is this Swedish summer institution. A radio program. Simply called Sommar - Summer. Every day, 1PM-2.30PM from Midsummer’s Day until late August, a carefully selected person is hosting her/his own program. Every episode is personal, and the host also picks the music accompanying the story. Swedish National Radio has run this series since 1959, and to be selected as a Summer Host in Sweden, is a bit like being ennobled, it is an honor and the ultimate recognition.

So, I was going to listen to as many Summer as I wanted and felt like. Very important not to promise listening to all of them, that would turn something enjoyable to a must do. And preferably outside while working on my tan, delivered from a transistor radio in real broadcast time. No computers.Yes!

Now, my last promise was to do something fun for myself every day. Something that would make my heart tick and give me energy!

So, how did I do?

After years and years spending the sun hours delivered to us on the 64th latitude in an uncomfortable wooden chair really bad for my back, I invested early June in a real sun chair. And boy did that investment match the summer! I have spent so many days lying in that chair I can’t keep track anymore, and my tan looks like I have been on a blanket in Gasworks Park for a month! So, yeah, every possible minute in the sun!

Did I listen to music? Well… kind of. I sometimes have remembered to put music on, although not as much as I was thinking. But, the times I did gave me a lot.

How about the summer clothes? I have been doing a lot better in that area! At Midsummers I picked my most romantic summer outfits, hanging them on my bedroom closet doors as an inspiration. And I have been wearing most of them! Sometimes with people visiting, sometimes only going for a treatment, but a lot of times just for myself. And they have made me feel pretty and in good spirits!

Did I listen to Sommar? Yes I did, and always outside and most of the time on the air!

So what about doing something making me tick? A failure. Only once. I took all those romantic outfits, I hang them in my grand father’s apple tree and made a photo shoot! It was so incredibly fun, I can’t even remember when I last composed a picture! And I literary felt life running into my veins! That’s actually when I felt something like this is what I need to do every day.

So I asked myself, what would I like to do? And couldn’t come up with anything… Well, I could of course, but all those creative desires are impossible due to my physical restrictions. Pretty much all I can do by myself is writing, and I am honestly a bit fed up with it. It’s also on the border to work and I’m shying away from it in a healthy way.

That’s only half the truth though. The other half is that just having fun isn’t my strongest department. I am not that well trained when it comes to playing.

In total though, my staycation has been a success. Thanks to the Weather Gods. They have given me all those days in the sun charging my body battery I so badly need, Sommar in the transistor radio and plenty of warmth to wear my sheer summer clothes. My body is happy when it is warm, and when my body is warm I am happy. And if we are lucky we might even have a few weeks more feeling like summer!

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