Those that say you can’t take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip.

— Unknown

I grew up in Chicago.  My parents wanted to live in a warm climate – Chicago can be a bit cold, and gray and wet and smoggy.  When it’s not cold and gray and wet and smoggy, it’s hot and sunny and humid and smoggy.  Both of my parents had grown up in Chicago and they both longed for a cleaner, more hospitable place to live.  Since we couldn’t live anywhere else, every summer we took a three week driving vacation to the Left Coast – though back then it was just the west coast.

My parents must have been nuts: three weeks in a car with three little kids.  OY!  To make sure that we all returned home in one piece and NOT in a casket, Mom made sure that we had lots of toys to entertain us during the 8-10 hour days as we went across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.  Because she also believed that our education shouldn’t stop during the summer, she also brought library books for us to read at night.  After all, everyone knows you get sick if you read in the car.  Now, I don’t want to make too much of this because I know that no one likes to throw up, but you need to know that I am one huge baby when it comes to nausea.  So, when Mom said that I’d throw up, that was it – no reading in the car.

BUT, we read comics in the car – and I never felt a twinge of nausea.  So, I tried reading a book for a few minutes, no problem.  Eventually, I was reading coast to coast. (Well, actually, it was mid-west to coast, but let’s not be too picky.)  If I was in the car, I was either reading or sleeping.

Don’t Have Time for the Scenery

After three days of pedal to the metal driving, we would get to someplace interesting – Arizona or Utah or Colorado.  And as we got to the land of national parks, we would start to see signs telling us that the good spots were coming up ahead.  Now, if you’ve ever taken a trip like this, you know that after a certain number of scenic outlooks, you don’t notice them anymore.  Initially, you hop right out of the car to drink in the scenery.  But after a while, how much magnificence can you absorb?  Besides, I’m at a really good point in the book…

Our lives are like that.  We become acclimated to whatever we are immersed in.  We get “used to” driving through life, paying no attention to what surrounds us, just keeping moving.  We find it hard to make time to notice the beauty that surrounds.

This past January, when I was at my folks house, packing up the valuables, I forced myself to take a walk every evening before dark.  The scenery by their house is phenomenal.  Once out walking on the roads (there were no sidewalks), I was surrounded by mountains in every direction.  They were lit by the setting sun and just walking and looking refreshed my soul.  And yet, I still needed to force myself to take the break… I had soooo much that I had to do.

Take a Break – Even a Short One

I know that things are hectic right now for everybody.  Trust me, they are always hectic “out there.”  But we can choose to be peaceful “in here.”  Even a five minute meditative walk can restore your sense of balance and help you to come back to the necessary tasks, focused and refreshed.  Not all of us get three week vacations, but we can choose to take a moment to rebuild.  When you need a break, try this three minute meditation recommended by Dr. Judith Orloff in her book Emotional Freedom.  See if it doesn’t help you to center and go forward.

Three Minute Meditation

1. Find a quiet place with a comfortable place to sit.  If you want or need to get back to work in a specific amount of time, bring an alarm with you and set it before you begin.  You don’t need to sit in a particular pose.  Just sit comfortably so that your body doesn’t distract you.
2. Focus on your breath and allow your thoughts to quiet.  If a thought surfaces, just let it drift away like the clouds drift in the sky.
3. As you quiet, deliberately focus on breathing in “calm” and breathing out “stress”, or anger or fear or anxiety, any negative emotion which you are currently feeling.
4. When your time is up, allow yourself to re-engage with the world slowly so as to maintain your calm state.

Meditating is like stopping at a scenic outlook.  It interrupts our day with all of its concerns and helps us refocus on what’s important.  And if we’re truly lucky, we’ll take some of that beauty with us throughout the rest of our day.