There and Back Again...Noticings

Brian and I have returned from our two weeks’ vacation, though we realized belatedly that there are different gifts and challenges between ‘vacations, just us’ and ‘vacations with family.’ Two families, in this case; his and hers. Both vacations are marvelous; each offers quite different gifts. Scheduled to arrive home Sunday night, we chose to arrive Saturday night instead, to give us both a day of landing, nesting, preparing for re-entry. We are smarter than we knew…

I had lamented via text with a spirit-friend as Brian and I were driving: “I’ve had two weeks with the man and I don’t feel any closer to him!” She shared her own experience of this phenomenon—blessed times with family being quite distinct from feeling in sync or close with her husband. She being who she is, she Googled for “relational questions” and sent a link from The-Temple, a Jewish community based in Atlanta Georgia, with a “relational question bank” to urge deeper conversations for us on the road, even if it was intended for over coffee & pastries (babke, perhaps?). She had not intended the Jewish framing of questions, but Brian and I particularly enjoyed answering the question: When you think about the impact Judaism has had on your life, how would you describe it? Brian had all kinds of scriptural theological things to say. I had nice reminiscences about dear spirit-friends, Irwin and Brad, their families. We then arrived home, glad to be home.

We had all of Sunday to be together, which is unheard of for us, given his work. And it only took one day. Voila! We feel one another again. Same-Same! We giggled. Blessedly.

Things I’m noticing then?

I have returned delightfully disoriented from what I will call my work gauntlet, much of which is self-imposed. I aim to stay close to my heart’s desire and a contemplative life, but I slip away from it without even noticing in the end. I slept a lot on this trip, which I needed simply to know it was okay to nap. Even a healthy-recovery oriented practice I might pick up...

I learned my normal life habits these days serve me so very well--physical activity, clean eating, rosary, etc.! Because I’m so intentional within app and real accountability communities, it now only takes two days for my palette to return to its sense of normal, after giving up sugar while having nearly two weeks’ of it. As I put raw almond butter on a piece of my low-carb, GF seed-bread today, I was delighted with how very sweet it tasted. It used to take at least a week before I was free of cravings for sweet. Likewise, it takes one morning’s CF-lite activity and one day of clean eating for me to feel fully in my own body again. I slipped into the 6 a.m. CrossFit class today, knowing to scale well for a gentle return.

A busy week beckons, and I’m already into my Intensive week all day today. But I’m glad for the noticings, the gifts received.