Holiday Reflections...

Of course after being restrained for over a year every single one of us is desperate for a holiday. It was recently my 40th birthday so to celebrate we escaped to Majorca for a week of sunshiney bliss. If you haven’t been away yet and are so looking forward to doing so, let me remind you what you have to look forward to.

Only 24 hours after arriving, reclining on a lounger in lovely surroundings, overlooking a spectacular view of the mountains and sea, I joyfully indulged in reading a few pages of my book (Matthew McConahey’s Green Lights) and immediately the ‘holiday headspace’ began to drop in to view; those little nuggets, flashes of inspiration and ideas dropping into my mind. The reminder and realisation that life is big and broad and full of opportunity, inspiration and optimism. The combination of a change of (stunning) scenery, real warmth in your bones, lovely music washing over me, the total treat of breakfast being prepared for you, eating outside, seeing different types of people and sitting amongst their language, devouring the local food and allowing my eyes to drink in this exquisite scenery before me...the mountains just do something to me! Most importantly having zero agenda, so that the body can unwind and the mind can wander...touching on dreams and ideas and imagination, to what I'm excited about, what I might want to learn more about, how I can help more people and the vision I have for my life ahead of me.

I mused on what I had missed most in 2020 and plans to dive in to this (live music), considered how to bring sentimental things to life (like my Dad’s father of the bride speech), was reminded how important my heritage is to me (after the delightful hotel receptionist told me her name was Irene, like my grandmother’s) noted which bits of me I want to expand on (writing) and reflected on how important the clear messages contained within a conversation with a stranger at a party had been to me. I even arrived home to see our living environment through renewed eyes, seeing small opportunities to bring our home back to life which I used to love doing but had of course grown intolerant of thanks to COVID-19.

My husband Charles and I agreed to never underestimate the impact that a break and a change of scenery can have upon our souls and on our relationship. Leaving the chores at home and instead enjoying the beauty of the world, trying new adventures together like e-biking in the hills, soaking in the sights and sounds of a different culture and the people that make it. Swimming in warm seas, toasty skin, exploring winding streets and seeing the look of joy on your partner’s face as he eats all of the octopus - it all serves to remind you of what you love about life, that inspiration waits at every corner, that you do have a future to be excited about, and that carving out the time to spend wholly with each other is a golden ride.

For all of us, a holiday at the moment sounds like a dream. For me, I am going to try to take the learnings from this experience and remember that travelling, a change of scenery, no agenda and the chance to reconnect with each other is one of the most important things in the world to me, and will be back at the very top of my ‘to do’ list. Thank you 2020 for the reminder of what truly matters most to me in this life.

Katy x