Pausing | Day 80 of my 2023 Journal

We just spent 24 hours in a village I don’t even know the name of.

It is sometimes emotionally complicated to stop. I remember someone said: “Vacation is doing something you are not usually doing.” Now we do not do vacations, but sometimes we do pause.

And it is confronting.

When we paused in the unnamed village near Bologne, the weather changed for the much better, and our van was parked right next to a piece of grass with flowers. We spend the day enjoying the sun while working a bit, answering emails, writing stuff, organizing the van, repairing stuff, and studying.

But first, we had to ask ourselves what to do when we were not busy sightseeing. The change was somewhat emotionally overwhelming. There are so many things to do in this category of “normal little things” it seems overwhelming to begin with. Nails to cut. Yoga to do. Things to fix. Books to read. Music to play.

We did enjoy our van and the simple life in and around it, accomplished 3 percent of the many little things, and went for a walk in the afternoon. The second-hand shop could have had some T-shirts we needed, but it did not, and it did not matter. The church was beautiful, the sunset alike, and the water living animal, I don’t know the name of in English, was exciting and made us smile. Any walk is a good walk.

Negotiating what to do next, cooking dinner, calling friends, and doing some more work. We feel we could use 25 days like this, but we know we can not do it.

We have to see what is around the next corner. We can not sit still. We can only pause briefly.

Love and light

Cecilie Conrad

# 80 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here