On maintaining lightness after holidays

So I'm counting myself back in after my eight-week holiday.

It's never easy, moving from the natural stimulation of adventures and the deep rest gained from exercising all day back into a more sedentary and predictable life.

I love home. I thrive on routine. I have a good life. But, oh, remember the exhilaration of accidentally swimming Saphire Rapid or the restfulness of the yoga class every afternoon at 4pm for a week or waking up in the middle of the night to a clear northern sky in the middle of the desert ...

Before I left, I wrote notes for myself about where I was up to so it'd be easier to re-join my work rhythms. But my notes were rushed and vague:

• Start Act 3 XXX memoir

• Go over emailed notes with YYY

• Check ZZZ scene list and make chronological.

The notes were fine. But they weren't detailed enough and I avoided re-entry for a good long while. Now here I am.

It's time to re-start, in earnest. Really.

Yet I'll be doing so with a week at Mabel Dodge Luhan retreat behind me and two-plus weeks rafting the Grand Canyon as well as a month of bushwalks, conversations, camping and poking fun at silly foreign signs.

A wise friend has told me that I've come back 'lighter'. What a lovely thing to hear.

Indeed, when asked if I 'got much writing done' while I was away, even on retreat, the answer is no.

But when I go back to my notes to see what I wrote on the first day of the writers retreat, I see that writing wasn't my intention:

What I want to experience this week?

Reconnection - with self, body, creativity, diet, health, rhythms, rest.

Engagement on interesting topics, particularly associated with writing and craft and process.

Joy in creating. Joy in life.

Not second-guessing self with 'Have I got enough energy?' 'Should I do this or this?' 'What will people think?'

What do I want to create/explore/figure out?

Re-establish a personal rhythm - writing, yoga, good eating, cardio exercise, nature, good people, rest/stimulation, reading, early up and early bed.

Make all of this OK - more than OK... Make it who I am, consistently. Good habits for living my best life.

... and now I'm home I'm still doing it. I haven't lost that sense of lightness that I found on holiday and feel I have some ways to choose and arrange and enjoy life's load.

May your words pour onto the page,