Last Thursday, I boarded a plane bound for Manchester, NH where a rental car was waiting to whisk me off through the fabulous fall foliage to Portland, Maine.
I was invited to accompany a friend on her much needed "mom getaway". Due to her husband's immense traveling and thereby immense accumulation of frequent traveller points, we were able to take this trip without paying for airfare, hotels, or rental car. Truly amazing. Even more amazing that I was invited to share the generosity and go along.
We left Thursday afternoon. At the airport, we stocked up on trashy celebrity magazines and boarded the plane where we quickly settled in for a long, childless plane ride. The ginger ale tasted sweeter, the snacks were extra good, and we talked, analyzed, therapized (is that a word?), laughed, giggled, and played the whole way. After finding our rental car, we drove about 90 minutes to our hotel in Portland where we were greeted by warm cookies, cool bottles of water, 2 double beds with feather pillow top mattresses, real feather comforters, and crisp, soft white sheets. The bed even had a throw pillow with "Sweet Dreams" embroidered across the front. The next morning we had "complimentary tickets" for the breakfast buffet downstairs and I'm not talking a bagel and some crusty cream cheese. I'm talking scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, fruit buffet, pastries buffet, etc. etc. I actually swiped 2 jars of jam because they were seriously so little and cute. And this was just the first 12 hours...
This trip was so therapeutic to my soul. There is something about the wild ruggedness and sheer breathtaking beauty of the east coast that really touches my spirit in a powerful way. We saw white lighthouses that reached into the deep blue sky. Lakes and rivers and ocean with pounding surf and wild waves. We ate haddock with newburg sauce in a charming local restaurant called The Lobster Shed. We drove through magnificent trees with colors you can't even imagine. We touched the cold Atlantic Ocean and marvelled on our knees at the beautiful things growing in tide pools. We shopped at little antique shops, took a million pictures on a million beautiful stone bridges in front of white steepled churches in quaint, quiet, beautiful towns and villages. We got lost a million times and didn't worry about being found. We talked about husbands, children, marriages, dreams, disappointments, frustrations, joys, and hopes. We told stories about high school, old boyfriends, rainy wedding days, rebellious teenage days and found memories we both thought we had lost. We drank lots of caramel hot apple cider from Starbucks and never took for granted a single old stone New England home. I found myself standing still in lots of different places with my eyes closed and breathing deeply, feeling like something inside me was being filled that had been empty for some time. I don't know what that empty place was...maybe it was missed moments of quiet and solitude. Maybe it was finding the things that are so beautiful and magnificent to me that they take my breath away. Maybe it is how the air smells or the sound the leaves make or how seagulls sound flying above the water. It was precious time.
Every woman needs time like this. Taking a trip like this was truly a precious gift from a dear, wonderful friend. It is a tradition that I hope to replicate every year. With all that I love and hold dear, I needed 4 days to reconnect with myself and with my life. I didn't spend one moment thinking about teaching preschool or planning a primary program or worrying about sharing time or stressing about house cleaning or child raising, or any of the other things that fill my life on a day to day basis. For 4 days I thought about different things, new things, and played with new ideas. When I came home, I ready to face my challenges and joys with new perspective. I have had moments that have been difficult and where I have longed to sit on the rock in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and just be still but I also have a profound joy that I have a life filled with magnificent people and opportunities. It is a balancing game and I'm still a novice.
To Tonya...thank you from the bottom of my heart.
To Chris...thank you for being a husband who sincerely tries in every way to understand and support me. Thank you for watching our children and making this possible.
To Mo and ML and CeliAnne...thank you for loving my children and being willing to take them on. You helped in very meaningful ways to make this opportunity possible.
And to all the women who carry heavy burdens every day...remember to stop and rest and close your eyes and breathe deeply. Rest. Be still.
5 comments:
What a gift you have for expressing yourself! I feel like I know exactly what you were experiencing and know just exactly what it all meant to you. It was a pleasure to spend a day with your sweet children, even if we did make ourselves sick eating candy corn and playing "Don't Eat the Monster!" I'm so glad you could go!
That was a beautiful post! I am so glad you were able to have such a wonderful, refreshing getaway. That's something all moms need - I'm envious!
(found you through Mormon Mommy wars)
What a wonderful trip! What a marvelous friend to share it with you! No one deserves or appreciates a trip like that more than you, Amy. I'm so glad you went. My only problem with mommy get-aways is that they end! I find myself walking vveeerrrry sssllloooooowwly from the gate at the airport to the minivan waiting outside. Its not that I don't love them, of course. Its just hard to get back to real life after such quiet and luxury. I applaud you for actually enjoying your return and not crying about it like I do!
(sigh).
you were oh-so-close to me. I wish I would've known so I could think to myself,"amy's here, and she's loving the same things I love" and send you happy thoughts on your perfect trip.
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