Image source: Merlina McGovern
Do you have a place where you can get away from everything? A place far away from all your worries and cares? Every summer, we drive to a magical summer place that soothes away all of our stresses.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my house and my neat little suburban neighborhood. But, ever since I began working full-time from home, sometimes I need just a little bit of time and space away from the same-old, same-old of my house. Every day, I get up, have breakfast, set up my laptop to work in my office, leave my desk to walk a few feet to have lunch, walk the short distance back to my office to work, have dinner, and then shut off my computer before going to sleep close to my work desk — and then I start the whole routine all over again the next morning.
I’m lucky enough to have a family that has a summer cabin near a crystal-blue lake in the New Hampshire Lakes region. After a two-hour drive, depending on traffic, we pull into a small town with summer homes clustered around the lake. We roll down our windows, and when the smell of fresh pine needles rolls in, I know that summer has arrived.
Although the lake is still too cold from the winter to swim in, summer at the lake is a time for:
Short walks in the morning to get fresh donuts at the local grocery
Shrimp cocktails and gin and tonics at the local inn
Summer reads, while we sit on beach chairs watching the boats float by
Long walks through the woods
Grilled hot dogs in split buns and plates of watermelon
Brilliant sunsets at the local dock
And even when we have to pack up and leave after the long weekends are over, the memories, the smells, the warm summer sights all stay with me for long after we are back home. I cherish these times and remember what happiness and life is all about.
I realize how privileged I am to have such a place now. When I was younger, my family lived in a small house in “the valley” of our small southern-California town. One summer day, a family picked my sister up to babysit their kids. As they rolled up to our house, the kid took one look at it and wrinkled his nose. He asked his mom if this was our summer home, since it was too small to be our real home. I was embarrassed at the time; it was the nicest home that my dad could afford on his Marine salary. Memories of friends removing their radio faces from their cars before they parked on our street so they wouldn’t get stolen flooded into my mind.
Over time, I learned to swallow that embarrassment, and I even learned to love that little house with its multicolored front panels and gigantic bougainvillea blooming pink blossoms in the front. I remember that my father eventually moved up in rank enough to be able to afford to put in a small pool. I cherish the memories that we made in that house. I do know that you don’t need to have a summer home to be happy. Wherever you are in your life, it’s nice to take a moment of time to reflect on the things that make you happy.
What are your happy places? Let me know where you go to enjoy the warm summer days in the comments below.
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