Sun, Sand, Sea and Space
Fear not. This is not one of the posts where I share my holiday pics with you. Being a child of the 70s I am well aware of the dreaded OPHPs… Other People’s Holiday Pics. I remember well sitting in the corner of my mum and dad’s friends living rooms, vol au vents passed around (how very continental) as the grown-ups oohed and aahed over blurry pictures of paella - all the while reaching for next year’s Thomson Brochure.
But there’s something about holidays isn’t there? You know what I mean. I’m not talking about the Sun, Sand or Sea… all of which are welcomed after another long year – or in many cases, 3 years. I’m talking about the 4th ‘S’ perhaps the most important ‘S’…
Space.
I don’t know about you but for me it takes a while to peel off the layers we’ve collected since the last break. The to-do list, the schedules, the washing, the drying, the traumas, the celebrations, the hellos and the goodbyes - they all come on holiday with us in our carry-ons as excess luggage. It takes a while for the sand to settle and the mist to clear.
But when it does, well that’s the moment. When the thoughts can drift in clearer than before. New perspectives, hopes and dreams - a clarity which is hard to find at home.
For me, I wanted to find my sentence for my Flowerpot work - my books and podcast. I watch people I admire with theirs’ – one sentence to define the purpose of their work.
Brene Brown – wants to start a global conversation about shame.
Mo Gawdat wants his happy formula to reach one billion people
Jay Shetty wants to help people find their purpose
Me – I had just published my third book, finished my sixth series of my Next Chapter podcast but I still didn’t have my line.
On our first day still heavy with jet-lag I watched a woman dance on her own in the foyer bar. Let’s say her name was Jan – well Jan was Holiday Jan. Free, bronzed and rested.
“I want to feel like that woman.” I told my husband. If I become Holiday Ellie, perhaps I’d know what my work was trying to achieve.
All around us were transformations. We met people on Day 2 in line for the breakfast waffles, who, shoulders hunched, told us about their long working hours back in New York. Three days later we saw the same couple shoulders back, arms in the air, dancing with each other. They were Holiday Mr and Mrs New York.
But I still wasn’t quite finding the clarity. The sleep came, books were read and the heavy layers started to lift. I listened to a great podcast: https://lewishowes.com/podcast/discover-your-inner-peace-with-this-key-secret-with-sadhvi-bhagawati-saraswati/
The idea we should leave our past troubles behind in the waters abroad. So, each morning I stretched and let the sea take my worries away. Every day I met my husband and boys at breakfast a little lighter. By the evenings, we even started to tap our feet and sing along. Our boys rolled their eyes at Holiday Mum and Dad. But we didn’t care. We were Holiday Mum and Dad.
But still no line.
By Day 12 I let myself think it wasn’t going to arrive. I would just muddle on as I have been. That’s okay - isn’t it?
We had a sundowner in the beach bar as the boys played in the sea. We laughed, chatted to the barman Claude and told him he had the best office we’d ever seen. We played some cards and forgot about everything else.
And then it happened. The thought slid in. The line appeared.
I turned to my husband.
“Flowerpot - helping women to grow through fact and fiction. That’s it. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
He nodded as he shuffled the cards.
“There it is – there’s your line.”
We left two days later, lighter, freer, feet a little sore from dancing on the last night. Holiday Ellie and Rob had been relocated again. The space the holiday had given us had helped us feel like US again, and all I had in my carry-on this time were some sandy costumes and my new Flowerpot Line.
So the question is, what happens next? How we do we keep in touch with the Holiday versions of ourselves, so we see them for longer than just two weeks once a year?
Here in Bristol, we have the magnificent Avon Gorge and Clifton Suspension Bridge. Each morning since I’ve been back, I stretch and let the water take my worries away. Is it the same as being on holiday? Not quite, but it’s something. I still return lighter and freer than I did before. Do you have a spot like this for you to try too? Just some open space where you can breathe and let nature carry your worries away. I hope so – because Holiday You is joyous and lovely, it would be a shame not to see them again for another year.
Why not give yourself the space here and see what happens?
And you never know what thought may find its way in.