It’s 7:00am. We’ve been up for two hours already, just like normal.
Rising at 5:00am, we head out on our loop around the neighbourhood. It’s about eight kilometres. The sun is out but it’s not too hot yet. We walk through the various parks and bushland. Chatting away for some. Being with our thoughts for the rest. Then we connect back to the street, walk through the neighbourhood, and come back home.
Now I get to relax for a bit. Sitting outside under the patio, I eat breakfast. I’ve either got my book in hand or I’m thinking through things – trying to connect a few dots, or even just thinking what I want to write about later on.
I’ve only recently added breakfast back. I used to work out fasted and would only have a black coffee until lunch. I thought it would be good to change things up and try some new. To see if having food beforehand helped at the gym. So far, I think it has. Plus, yoghurt, muesli and blueberries tastes so good. So good, in fact, that it’s a great ordinary moment of that day that you look forward to straight away. Talk about having an early morning win. Then it’s time for a coffee, another simple pleasure of life. The wins keep coming.
Today I’ve gone for the roasted hazelnut Nespresso coffee flavour. Adding a dash of milk first really brings out the taste. Bliss. Now, my fingers are on the keyboard, typing away. Take a sip of coffee. Write a few sentences. Stare at the birds in the tree for a bit. Repeat.
One thing I enjoy about holidays is that it removes some of the time obligations that we experience during the working week. Things can take the time that they need to take. I don’t have to close my laptop after 10 minutes because I need to pack lunch and get to the bus. Things can unfold at their own pace.
My previous post focused on the idea of what if we have everything we need. We do. I remind myself this constantly. I also feel a lot of gratitude and joy at the same time. Being on holidays, my days are structured differently, and I’m really enjoying them. Remove work, and you have an extra 10 hours (travel time is included here) to focus on what you want to focus on.
It does come with a warning though. Yes, we have more hours to do what we want to do. But somethings it’s not about what we want to do. It’s what we ought to do. We have duties and responsibilities we still need to undertake. As much as I’d love to binge the last season of Attack on Titan in a day, or read Best Served Cold cover-to-cover, that can’t be what we do.
That sentence distracted me though. I wonder if they’ll turn Best Served Cold that into a movie? 10 minutes later, I’ve come back out of the rabbit hole. Oops. It happens.
So, back to our duties. I was already trying to shirk them by finding out about movie adaptations.
There’s a lot of responsibilities that come with life. We have duties to our selves (care of the self), our family, community, country, and world. That’s for another time. But it highlights that even when we are on holidays there are things we have to do. In fact, we get extra time to focus on these things. Which is great. I’m enjoying the extra time to mow the lawn, look after the garden, do more than usual with the community groups I’m a part of, and see family and friends more than normal. Plus, I have way more time for self care. More gym sessions and extra sets. More time reading and writing. Walking every morning.
Something I’ve enjoyed is going to the gym later. Being able to start each morning with a walk, and then breakfast, reading and writing, has been great. Then, on the days I work out, I’ll go to the gym anywhere between 10:00am to 12:00pm. I’m enjoying it whilst it lasts, so I do have the extra appreciation for it, because I know that this is just a temporary thing. It’s also helped me to realise that the holiday structure I have for fitness is the ideal day that I want. Something for me to work on.
There was been plenty of time for leisure and doing my other duties. Much of the holiday was focused on what I wanted – and it alignment with where I want to go. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. It was good enough for me.
Here’s a couple of highlights from the leave:
- Lots more study. I got two modules submitted, and gave myself an extended break too
- Lots more writing. I published more blog posts, wrote more on Twitter, and have penned outlines of more articles to explore
- Reading and note taking. I’ve been going through more books with the highlighter, and have been picking up new information in cool ways and recording them in notes
- Getting ready for parenthood – we got a car seat, pained a second-hand change table we were gifted, and rearranged a lot of the townhouse to make room and began to prepare the nursery. It was fun
- Change in workout times and sets. It was fun. More time in the gym was good. Longer rests. I had my notebook with me so I was able to capture thoughts in my notebook as they appeared during the rest sets
- More hangouts
- A few days away down the Coast. That was fun to walk along the beach, do lots of reading and writing, and look out at a new settings. Sure, it’s not a fancy holiday, but they aren’t really the point. It was what we wanted, and it was awesome
- Some great catchups with friends and cool discussions
- Prepared, wrote, and presented the January meetup at Brisbane Stoics on Cicero’s On Duties – lots of fun
