I don’t think I truly know what the words “vacation” or “relax” mean. Seriously. We’re visiting friends right now and I’ve taken the week off, conceivably to “relax”, or have a vacation. But I don’t know if I’d be able to relax if my life depended on it. When I’ve not been running around town with my little brood, or busily doing “fun” stuff, I’ve been trying to get caught up on my work e-mail, personal e-mail, and GSOC project, among other busy-work. Not exactly relaxing fare.
I’ve recently realized that this state is not necessarily a good one to exist in, and have become increasingly aware of an absence of rest, peace, and tranquility.
So, in an attempt to relax/vacation in the last couple of hours that I’ve had to myself, I’ve updated my facebook profile, set up a twitter account, caught up on my unread RSS feeds, caught up on unread mailing lists (not done with that one yet *sigh*), researched SRV DNS records, and having done those things, I feel anything but relaxed and/or vacationy.
I have a very out of focus picture in my mind of what relaxation/vacation should look like and it involves a couple of good books, a hammock, a bunch of trees, a cool breeze, and a distinct lack of technology. I think. But how do you actually pull that off? =:/
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Step 1: Get a plan ticket to SE Asia.
The rest will follow (excuse the pun).
Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Don’t worry about it. Some people don’t recharge by relaxing. In fact, trying to relax drives them batty. You’re just one of those people. As long as you engage in activities you find enjoyable, it will recharge you, even if they’re things that are generally considered hectic.
Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Your about page: “I am a Christian. This is the basis for my identity and life.”
Your post: … “and have become increasingly aware of an absence of rest, peace, and tranquility.”
This seems to me a contradiction in terminus.
I’m also Christian and programmer. And entrepreneur, husband father. Life can be busy, but when you cannot find peace and tranquility the alarm bells should ring loud. So, read your bible and see what Jesus has to tell you 
Get on sailboat, leave your battery gadgets at home.
That is how I do it. 
Get yourself and some friends a sleeping bag and a tent and go out in the woods/mountains/sea. Set up a nice camp and cook your own meals on an open fire. And most important of all leave all your electronics at home, including your mobile phone.
best regards
loki
heh – surprise – surprise…you don’t like to slow down! Heh – tell you what, get a motorcycle and loan me one of your shirts – and we’ll ride to God’s country and back…and yes you can take your laptop and wireless card if you promise not to use it while riding.
You, know, I suffer the same thing – for different reasons. I love to be with people – the quiet and rest that allows me to hear God’s voice in a solitude kind of way – is like fingers on a chalk board. That’s why I’ve learned to hike with friends (a.k.a the Appalachian trail which had your knees for lunch…I still smile when I think about the fun we had that day…even though you were 30 going on 60 )
Anyway – the point is to actually respond to the longing God puts in your soul – and not just hope that some other busy thing will fill it. So, here’s my encouragement for you brother – find something you enjoy that can create some space for you to get alone with God for a little while – then do that with someone your like, or if you’re an introvert – by yourself.
In any case – don’t spend too much time feeling guilty about NOT checking off a list – SPEND your energy on responding to God’s spirit prodding you to get connected with Him!
Miss your friendship and good company bro!
PS. I’m cheap – you know that’s why I can’t bring myself to have my own website.
On the few occasions I’ve actually gotten myself to do that whole ‘relaxing’ thing, it’s usually involved the great outdoors.
One of the best weeks of my life was spent in a PA state park called Ricketts Glen, in a nice little ‘modern cabin’, as the state parks call it. Basically, that means you’re staying in a small house, replete with heating, stovetop, oven, and bunkbeds.
It was just me and a close friend. We did bring a cell phone, but there wasn’t any service there. We also brought an ancient, lightweight Debian laptop for writing purposes.
Then, we just read, discussed, and explored the park for a week.
Bliss.
It was, in a sense, a very productive week, in that a lot of difficult, detailed discussion of what we were doing and what we should be doing took place, but it was indeed relaxing.
So, I guess that’d be my recommended technique. Take some time off, go somewhere remote, and don’t bring any good communications technology with you.
Tuesday June 10, 2008 at 6:17 pmBtw – Mr. Famous artist dude – got a great book for you to read….its got gold all through it and will do some serious work on your perspective of what it means to be dad, and have God as a Dad. Best book I’ve ever read.
and yes, I know…I need my own website.
*cough* cheap *cough*
Grrr. Danged gmail thought all of my blog->personal comment notifications were spam. My apologies. =:/
Actually, after my last trip out to Cali, where I saw how many people rode their bicyles (non-motorized) to work every day, I realized that I need to start doing it myself, so I have. The brief periods of time that I have to myself while biking around the neighborhood (read: biking through this beautiful forest I have accidentally found myself living in and fighting like mad to get out of) provide me with exercise (which I desperately need as a sit-on-my-butt-all-day-for-a-living geek), a “going to work” transition period, which is totally lacking in my working-from-home life, and some really good times of introspection and peace and conversations with God. So this has gotten better on a daily basis and I do hope that I don’t jinx it like I always do by talking about it, feeling good about it, and then getting lazy and stop doing it.
And @Shawn, I am so thankful for your friendship and the fun times we’ve had together. My knees, however, have never forgiven me for the torture session. =;P
@Nate: I totally identify with this, although I don’t know that I’d be able to do it. =:/
@loki: yeah, I think it’s different when you are married with kids, though. That just stresses me out because I’m more focused on them and trying to be a good husband and dad, etc.
@Lure: Now seriously, that has merit. I LOVE the ocean. About the only place that truly makes me feel at peace just being around is the ocean. I think it’s the sense that there is something so vast and vastly more powerful than me that I can get close to. It’s kind of a mental picture of God if I theorize about it. =:)
@Nico: Yep, that’s exactly what prompted the post: alarm/warning bells. I am just so inconsistent in everything that I do (classical strong Lion / A temperment personality thing) that I struggle greatly with being consistent with doing just that: spending time with God.
@sebr: Yeah, I definitely think it would be mindset-changing if not life-changing to get out of the .us and spend some time in another country. I _so_ want to do that. =:/
@Tony: Hey man!! =:) Good thoughts!! I think for me it comes down to defining what the big rocks should be in my life and putting those first. Everything else will sift in amongst the big rocks and will fit, but what I struggle with is being consistent with putting the big rocks in my glass first. (http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/big-rocks-first-double-your-productivity-this-week/ as the first site off Google I spotted… I think I actually got the analogy from an audio book from @Shawn…)
@Nicolas: yeah, word. =:) I’m pretty much already doing the “not reading” part, but still feel totally obligated to do so, especially trying to still be part of the KDE PIM community, so I wind up feeling guilty about not keeping up and then burning the candle at the other end trying to catch up. *sigh*
Thanks SO much, everybody, for your comments!! =:) I was actually really bummed that nobody commented (I thought), and got really happy today when I saw that it was just Gmail being silly and stuffing all my notifications into “Spam”. =:)
Wednesday June 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm[...] tagged vacationOwn a WordPress blog? Make monetization easier with the WP Affiliate Pro plugin. Vacation? What’s that? saved by 11 others muziekpiloot bookmarked on 05/29/08 | [...]
Thursday May 29, 20088:22 pm
Step 1: sudo aptitude remove akregator
Step 2: stop reading the mailing lists, in a week just mark anything unread as read and ask somebody to tell you if there is anything *worthwhile* that you missed.
Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 8:24 pm