Time to Get Away

What do you do to "get away from it all?" You know: to escape the routines of ordinary life you live, to a place that is completely "other," where you can truly relax , de-stress, and recharge.

Most Summers, I've been lucky enough to get away to such wonderful places as Europe, the Berkshires, and Maine. In Europe, we have visited places like Rome, Heidelberg, Vienna, Dublin, and Berlin. In the Berkshires, we have heard concerts at Tanglewood featuring Yo Yo Ma and John Williams. And in Maine, we have been to such far-off places as Lubec, Eastpoint, and Campobello Island in Canada.

What do these diverse places have in common? In every case, my wife and I were with old friends.

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote: "My friends are my estate." There is a warm soothing effect that comes over you when you spend a few relaxing days in the company of friends. Talking, remembering, crying, laughing.

So, paradoxically, one of the keys to "getting away from it all" is taking vacation with friends. Someone once said that friends help you to discover yourself. Do you have plans to get away from it all this Summer? If not, there is still time left. What are you waiting for? Call up a friend and tell them you are coming to visit.

Our good friend from Germany, Wolfgang, once recommended that we take a vacation. He wrote: "...you need some time to relax and to reload your accumulator, and I know from my own experience that it is far the best to do it away from home."

Never having heard the phrase "reload your accumulator" before, I plugged it into?google and converted it to German: deinen Akkumulator neu laden. Question to my German readers: Does that phrase make sense to you?

As the Summer passed, Wolfgang's recommendation went with us. At each place, we would recall his admonition to "reload your accumulator" and we would do our best to live up to it.

Did we reload our accumulator successfully? Yes, I think we did. We got away from home. We went to new places. We enjoyed nature. And we relaxed with friends

About the author: Terrence "Terry" Seamon enjoys travel. As someone once said, "Travel expands your horizons." When you change your place, you change your view. Some even say, you change your luck. What will you do this Summer to reload your accumulator?