My husband and I had the pleasure of going on vacation last week with my family in this cute, quaint area up north. We stayed at a place called Flying Flags RV park up in Buellton, CA only a city over from Solvang, a community steeped in Danish culture.
We were there for 3 nights and 4 days, and these uptown cottages that we had the pleasure of living in would make anyone believe that they are living a life of the rich and famous. The words “RV park” attached to the name Flying Flags does not do it justice because the words “RV park” is sometimes attached to a negative connotation to most people. Most people picture a dirty, gritty environment that is not picturesque of where you might want to spend your vacation.
Do not picture Flying Flags with a visual of an RV park rather a high-class resort in the city of Pleasantville.
Everything is pristine from their clean and heated pools and spas, smooth and well-manicured basketball courts, free bikes to ride, calligraphy-styled signage, colorful ice cream shops, accessible fire pits, bocce ball play areas, crafty bars, well-kept trails, well-groomed foliage, and Disneyland-grade flowers. Pool towels are magically replenished, pressed, and smell fresh of Downey, jovial resort workers are constantly around to serve, help, and bring whatever is needed, porches are filled with families playing card games, conversing, connecting.
The grounds are filled with curious children playing cops and robbers, riding bikes to get away from their mystical villains that are destined to lose regardless of the reckless, careless decisions made, the child-like faith and bravery always wins.
This is the best picture I can paint for you to envision how quickly this time of vacation can make any person live a completely different reality.
My favorite part of this vacation was getting to spend time with my nephews, Ezra and Jaxn, and my niece, Mila.
One in particular, Ezra, the oldest of all three has the imagination that takes you into a different world. I was so enraptured by the wonder and mystery of his imagination.
At one point, he had a magic wand that controlled the ability to silence anyone and take people’s voices away.
He had the ability to freeze time and move and obliterate any object of his choosing.
His toy, Groot, had the ability to stealthily tap my shoulder at any point in time.
Children are master pretenders that becomes a lost art as we get older.
Summers for most people are times that people take much-needed vacations. As adults, some of us work for the weekend or we work for the next vacation, but then we take our vacations, and there are times that we need a vacation from our vacation because we never gave ourselves permission to relax.
This mindset that many people take on during vacation is a mindset that we can choose on an early Monday morning prior to starting a new week of work. Why wait until our next vacation or weekend?
Why can’t we pretend? Why can’t we trick our worried minds to choose peace over pressure? The ability to use our imagination should not be abandoned as we grow up.
The ability to pretend does not have to be a lost art of our childhood.
Ezra reawakened the little girl in me that loves to play and pretend. Why only designate that inner-child in all of us to only come out and play on vacations or weekends? This freedom to be ourselves and to simply be happy is an attitude we can adopt at any point in time. Making believe wasn’t just for childhood or vacations.
As adults, we were not created to always hustle; we were created for things of the heart, to play and pretend.
“What would our lives be like if our days were studded by tiny, completely unproductive, silly, nonstrategic, wild and beautiful five-minute breaks, reminders that our days are for loving and learning and laughing, not for pushing and planning, reminders that it’s all about the heart, not about the hustle?”