Eat, Read, Sleep

Like most women, I enjoyed the book Eat, Pray, Love and I’m looking forward to the movie. But I haven’t had the time to see it yet and that’s the irony. It’s a book about taking a year away from the everyday things that cloud your vision in order to see yourself and the world in a better light, and I can’t even find two hours to watch the abridged version. Meanwhile, I’m reading blogs and tweets about people who gave up their lives sitting at a desk all day and moved to another country to chop vegetables and gather life stories all while they re-assess their own. It seems everywhere you look people are changing the course of their lives to forge a new road. If you can do this, and want to do this, then by all means do it. If you have the money, the time and the freedom from family obligations, then pick up now and go. Living abroad for a year gave me some of the best memories, and the greatest husband, but that was before I really needed it, when I could actually do it.
Now I’m a bit more confined, thanks mostly to rising medical bills and decreasing pay. But there is also something else that is keeping me on my current path, and that’s ambition; something that has become a dirty word, or at least a throwback to the 80’s. Not wanting to be anything close to retro though, I still want to succeed, not by anyone else’s standards, but by my own. It’s why I keep working, why I keep writing and why I keep trying. The path I’ve chosen is not easy and sometimes I do forget that it’s all about the journey, not the destination. But then I take a few days for the beach, not on the south of France, just plain old New Jersey, and I remember to appreciate the simple things, even if the water isn’t as blue as it was in Greece.
I spent a few days at the beach and I did nothing but Eat, Read and Sleep. There was a bit of walking too, but it was only to get to the destination where I would have dinner, read my book or go to bed. Those few days at that beach were filled with the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted. There was also no pressure to actually do anything except stare at the ocean and decide which of the two restaurants on the boardwalk I would visit to enjoy their gluten-free goodness. Despite a mild case of sunburn (I had sunscreen on, I swear!), I felt relaxed and, even though I could still fall asleep within a minute of closing my eyes, I felt rested and, more importantly, I felt inspired to go back to my desk job and keep pushing forward toward the things I desire, celebrating the small achievements and happy moments along the way.
I love to travel, meet new people and experience new things, and I take the opportunity whenever I can, but those moments aren’t the journey, they’re the destinations. Everyday, caring for your family, caring for yourself and working towards your dreams is the journey. You can lose your inspiration from time to time, but I believe you don’t always need a passport to find it, sometimes it just takes something a little closer to home; perhaps even a movie ticket and cutting out of work two hours early.