by jacob glass
WHEREVER YOU GO THERE YOU ARE
hh, summer vacation time is approaching fast! Time away from “busi- ness as usual” is such a respite for the spirit and soul. It’s an opportu- nity to see things from a different perspective and to let ourselves off the leash so we can have a nice run—even if that “run” is a lot of nap-
ping on the beach under an umbrella. Vacation is like writing ourselves a permission slip that allows us to SLOW DOWN, RELAX and SAVOR the present moment. When I was in my 20s I worked at a talent agency as their receptionist for a few
years. The owner was a big bear of a man who spent 40 hours a week locked away in his office meticulously planning his annual vacation. This was years before the Internet so he was scouring travel books and talking to travel agents and really studying the people, customs and culture of wherever he and his partner would be going. Well, actually half his time was spent planning next year’s vacation and the other half was spent filling and organizing photo albums of last year’s trip. In fact, he knew far more about the lives of the people he was going to be
living amongst for three weeks, than he did about all of us in the office he was surrounded by on a daily basis—for the rest of the year! I barely saw him except for when he was walking in past me in the morning, out at lunch, in after lunch or out at the end of the day. He was missinghis life inthepresent and was living for those future three weeks when he could get away from his life. Too bad. We miss so much of life that is right here in front of us, when all of our attention is on something, somewhere or sometime, which we think will be “better.” I always say that anyone can get laid on vacation. You may not have a date or
even a flirtation for a solid decade, but can still manage at least a torrid night of passion on an island getaway or cruise. This is mostly due to the fact, that when we go away on vacation, we tend to leave behind the limiting story that we tell ourselves the rest of the year. We OPEN up and let down our guard and this makes us much moreATTRACTIVE, like a magnet – attractive to LIFE, not merely to physi- cal pleasures. Most people, in their daily lives, are not paying that much attention to what is
right in front of them. The strangers in line are just the ordinary strangers we see all the time, so we don’t really NOTICE them or stop to chat. We’ve got to get going and cannot be slowed down. But on vacation, we talk to strangers willingly and
even eagerly at times. EVERYONE is a stranger when we’re on vacation—but they seem more exotic than the mundane strangers where we live. We get to know them a bit; we don’t reject them based on the trivial circumstances of their lives as people so often do “at home.” You might have dinner with a couple you’d never stop to chat with in your own town. You might have a fabulous fling with someone you’d find totally “inappropriate” to date back home because of what your friends might think. We are often much more open to adventures and trying new things when we are not on our home turf. It’s one of the great joys of a vacation. So I’m encouraging you to go right ahead and enjoy that experience to the
fullest if you go on vacation this summer—and then bring that “vacation self” back home with you—instead of putting him or her away with the luggage. Just think about how many people all over the world are saving up and making plans to vacation right where we already live, day in and day out. Southern California is a paradise people flock to every year as their “getaway” and we are the exotic strangers they want to chat with and get to know. Slow down and look around at the people who are right here right now. Loosen up and begin dropping more and more of the rigid story you may be telling yourself about what is possible for you here in your everyday life. EXPLORE the seemingly mundane people right in front of you as if you were visiting here for the very first time. It can be a wonderful exercise in divine imagination to sit at the local coffee shop
on a weekend morning and simply imagine or pretend that you are here from another land far away, seeing this land and these people for the very first time. If you allow yourself to get into it, you will see that it actually changes the way you perceive the people. Interestingly enough, almost everything that the author of Eat, Pray, Love experienced in other countries she could have experienced right here in Southern California within a few-hundred-mile radius. The difference is the PERMISSION we give ourselves to be vulnerable, available and open when we leave our old routine behind. You can have a wonderful adventurous “staycation” any time you choose, depending on who you allow yourself to be in that moment. Jacob Glass is an author and spiritual teacher who lectures monthly in San Diego,
Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. His new bookHappiness Boot Camp will be published this summer, check it out at:
jacobglass.com
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”– T.S. Eliot
26 RAGE monthly | MAY 2012
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