Back to work . . . (back to life, back to reality)

Ahhh!! The clock is quickly (too quickly) counting down the last minutes of my vacation before I head back to work. I have one hour and 10 minutes before I'm due at the bookstore, so before I put my work clothes on and pack my dinner I felt the urge to post one last vacation post before reality kicks in.

There's something really special about vacations. Whether you go away or stay at home, a vacation allows you to step back from your life and kind of get back to the core of who you really are. It allows you to re-examine your life and gage whether or not you're on track with where you should be. I feel like my life is slowly (very slowly) getting back on track. I started biking and exercising while I was away - waking up super early to do it and loving it (although I must admit I am horribly out of shape). I also performed at the wedding reception (I sang the song for the "first dance" of SJ and Clayton) and remembered how great it was to sing in front of people and make people feel the meaning of a song. I also spent a good deal of time outside and going for drives and just being in nature, which always makes me feel more at home no matter where I am.

One high-light for me of the trip was that on Sunday afternoon, after everyone had left and it was just my parents and Chris and I left on the farm, there was a huge (and I mean huge) thunderstorm. It rolled in quite quickly and before we knew it the skys were dark and the rain was pouring down. Chris and I were standing on the porch and I could see the flaps of the tent (the wedding tent people hadn't come yet to take it down) just flapping up and down. I really wanted to see if the rain was coming into the tent, so I ran across the field into the tent and stood on the dance floor for a few minutes just listening to the sound of the rain hitting the roof and feeling the mist of the water coming in from the sides of the tent. It then started to get really bad out, so I thought I should head back to the house for safety. Well pretty much as soon as I set foot outside the tent, I was soaked. Head to toe, completely drenched. I started to run across the field again in the direction of the house, and suddenly started laughing like a little kid. Chris was in the house at that point and said he could actually hear me laughing from inside and over the sound of the thunder! I was pretty much hysterical with laughter as I ran through the rain, and although I know I probably looked (and sounded) quite silly, let me tell you: nothing will make you feel more alive and in the moment than running across a field in the country during a huge thunderstorm while you're being pelted with heavy raindrops! Nature put on another show for us later on in the early evening, when we saw the most beautiful rainbow across the sky. It was perfect in it's shape and had all the colours - it was another one of those perfect moments that your mind just takes a snapshot of and remains in your memory forever. Both the thunderstorm and the rainbow were beautiful and mysterious and made me think about all the lessons nature can teach us.

I'll have to continue this post when I get home from work: even though there's more I want to write about, reality is now beckoning for me to join her. Work awaits - here's hoping my first day back is smooth sailing!!