Back from Vacation

I love vacation.

I spent last week on a beach in Navarre, Florida – outside of Destin – with my extended family (parents, brother and sister-in-law, sisters, Julie and Ryan).

It was a fantastic get-away.

Vacation, I’m convinced, is a spiritual practice. It’s an act of faith – a way of saying, “God, I trust that my little corner of the world will not fall apart if I leave it for a week.” Vacation is a reminder that God is creator and sustainer. In the words of Klaus Issler, vacation is an opportunity for “wasting time with God.”

There are different vacation philosophies, mind you. On one hand there are families who live by the activity-oriented philosophy for vacations. Every day of the trip is full of pre-planned fun activities. This philosophy makes for great vacations, for sure. I’ve enjoyed a few of them myself.

My vacation preferences, however, are for the sloth-oriented philosophy. In short: do as little as possible. And when you actually do something, make sure it’s as passive as possible: read or lounge on the beach, float in the ocean, watch a movie, take a nap, etc.

More than a week of such slothfulness makes me feel unproductive and lazy. But I’ve found 5-7 consecutive days of such (non)activity to be incredibly refreshing and invigorating.

So, I’m back – excited about life and ready to see what the next phase has in store!

And I’ve got a lot of catching up to do in the blogosphere, so stay tuned.