Recreation: Renewing the Creative Spirit

I catch myself striving to make and do. Trying so hard to be brilliant and productive. What I need most, though, is to let go.  I need to reclaim my favorite things and go to places where I find joy.

You can see this in the word itself. "Recreation" is re-creating something. That something is one's very soul.

I feel incredibly energized by the past two weeks I've spent hiking and traveling in Austria, Bavaria, and Germany's Mosel Valley. It was a difficult, emotional summer for me, but it all melted away somewhere among the mountains, castles, wildflowers, and Roman ruins. I began to feel recreated--grounded, excited and renewed, all at once.

It is so important to invite happy moments into your life. This wasn't something I learned to do as a young child. There was always a crisis looming in my family of origin, with a disabled single mother, poverty, and panic. I learned to be careful, to be nervous, to keep my guard up. Life was stressful, and you had to be ready for the Next Bad Thing. There were no vacations and many worries.

It took me years to discover that I'd gotten it all backwards. Playing, creating, and enjoying are top priority for me now, and the best way to deal with any problem or crisis that comes along. 

I believe it is my responsibility to keep myself in joy--to take time out, to recognize beauty, to cultivate big pleasures as well as small. And you don't have to go to Europe to find something to love and celebrate in your day.  

Because when I am recreated, then I can keep on creating, to my heart's delight.

Hiking Austria's Hochkonig Mountains

Ruins of Roman Baths in Trier, Germany's oldest city

Summit of Mt. Jenner

Mountain meadows

Lake Konigsee

A look back along the trail

Konigsee from Mt. Jenner

Cochem Castle

My real knight has shinier armor

Almbach River Gorge

Cloudscape

Cochem, Germany

A friendly face at Heidelberg's castle

Konigsee mountain range

Alpine flowers

Basilica at Trier

Clowning around in Munich

Hohenwerfen Fortress