A Glance Back – Vacation!

Last week my husband Neil and I took a vacation. Altogether now – “AHHHHHHH.” Yes, that’s the sound of relaxation, and I didn’t know how badly I needed to relax until I lay down on the king sized bed in our rented ‘home-away-from-home’ (Apologies for the cliche.) and slept away the first afternoon of our vacation. When I woke up I was slightly disgusted with myself, as in 1) We have a schedule to keep 2) I just wasted 3 hours 3) Oh my goodness, only 7 more days of vacation left….

And then I finally, finally dropped all that too-busy-to-enjoy-life baggage and began to appreciate my FREE time!

My husband and I are great fans of country music, and if you would have told me ten years ago that I would EVER admit to that, I would have – well – laughed. I was raised on classical music, and I still love-love-love classical music, but my horizons widened six years ago. In June 2007, my mother-in-law passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Neil and I had been caregivers for her and for Neil’s father for about five years. After her death, I racked my brains (yikes, another cliche) trying to figure out how to bring joy  back into my father-in-law Cliff’s life. One Saturday afternoon, I kidnapped him  and took him to a jam session being held by country music folks in our little hometown. He took a seat in the audience and seemed to enjoy the music. His nephew Jim, the organizer and leader of the group, remembered that Cliff played the harmonica, and he asked if Cliff wanted to join the musicians.

Dad answered, “Don’t have my harmonicas.” At that point I dug into my purse and pulled out a D harmonica. Isn’t amazing what you’ll find in a purse! That was the beginning of the every-Saturday jam sessions for Dad.

Sometimes my husband took him. Sometimes I did. Eventually Neil joined joined the musicians, too, on his guitar, but I didn’t play any “country/blue grass” instruments, so I stayed in the audience. A year or so later, my husband surprised me with the gift of a mandolin and two years after that with a mountain dulcimer, and the instruments have kept coming, each of us adding to our joy by learning “new” ways to play music. And you know what? Once you play country music, you start to like it.

I’ve written all that to tell you that we went to Branson, Missouri, on our vacation, where country music is king. We had so much fun, and we heard some incredible concerts, saw some amazing performers, including the Lennon Sisters (their Christmas show), The Osmonds, Mickey Gilley, The Presleys, Leroy New, and Don Williams – in his once a year, one night-in-Branson concert. The Don Williams concert was held at the Oak Ridge Boys Theatre, and I was entranced not only by his wonderful music, but also by the life-size Frederick Remington statue, “Coming Through The Rye,” in the lobby. Gorgeous!!

So we ate too much, and we laughed just the right amount, and we learned all over again that we love being each others best friend. AHHHHHHH, vacation!

Do you have a favorite place to go on vacation?

Blessings!

Sue