On Vacation(s)

Hanging out w. Adam and Soph.

James at the start of his first vacation, ever.

We are at the Beach Club Resort in Parksville, on Vancouver Island. A brief holiday before I leave for an intense week of training with Living Waters Canada.

We take a vacation once (sometimes twice) a year. In the summer we usually stay somewhere local - usually BC, Washington or Oregon. And we almost always head for somewhere that has a beach - mainly for Adam's benefit. He has the most fun around a beach - any beach. This might be due to his being born and bred on the west coast, or it might be the seminal trip to Hawaii we took last year.

I find the role of vacations to be extremely healthy and therapeutic. There is something about physically traveling away from and being away from where you normally conduct life and business.

Since my office is in my home, a holiday at home is very challenging, since, as soon as I walk into the basement I feel like I am at work.

In my line of work, fatigue and stress usually accumulates quietly and undetected until it might be almost too late. I have a very clear indicator - I usually get sick - a cold with bad congestion - accompanied by excessive whining.

A vacation keeps me healthy. Vacations can be expensive, but not necessarily - we are hoping to start camping this summer. This is something we have done sparingly in the past, but something we really enjoy. I have found people in BC camp way more that people in Saskatchewan - probably the easy access to some of the most beautiful natural spots on Earth.

I am writing this while on Vacation. We have two fave spots on the west coast - Rathtrevor Beach (possibly the worst named beach in the world) in Parksville, and Cannon beach in Oregon. Both spots have great beach access - we usually stay at a hotel or resort located directly on the beach.

The resort we are in right now is unreal - the room is actually more like an apartment - full kitchen, even a washer/dryer - I've never heard of a w/d in a hotel room before - but here you go!

The room also has a stunning view of the ocean. We spent the day beach combing, and then jumped in the pool and hot tub. After a nice "BC meal" of BC wine and BC salmon, I took Adam and Sophia for a walk on the boardwalk and then for sundaes at Dairy Queen. The night ended with Toy Story 2 - we're working towards seeing # 3 on Friday.

Vacations are therapeutic. They give me a chance to bond closer with the 4 people most important to me. I also get a chance to do some reflecting on the recent period of life and ministry, which I find very helpful.

My recent reflections have been mainly around preaching and pastoral care, where I have been devoting the bulk of my time and energy. I sense I need to take a "week out" after 6-8 weeks of straight preaching, in order refocus and refresh - otherwise I just get tired and cranky.

The same thing around pastoral care. Pastoral care - meeting w. people in crisis is a high-stress part of my job. I can usually handle one at a time, but they usually tend to travel in fast moving herds! There have been significant areas of pastoral care in the past few months, leaving me tired and at times, frustrated. A vacation offers much needed breathing room.

On vacation, I almost always turn my phone off and do not correspond very much by e-mail - I keep updating on twitter and facebook - just because I enjoy it and it lets the rest of my family know what we are up to.

This vacation is a bit brief (we're going on a longer one in August), but so far so good.

Also - we sold our apt. downtown. We had been renting it out for the last couple of years, but sensed it was time to sell. We love that apt.! Both Adam and Sophia spent their first few years there. We led a home group there every year for the 7 yrs. we lived downtown - lots of memories, sad to let it go.