Looking for new views of the familiar (when vacation is also re-creation)
Tuesday, in the spirit of “vacationing” together, Rebekah and I spent the morning working in the garden. Growth has been a little out of control, especially when it comes to weeds, grasses, saplings, invasive vines, poison-oak, poison-ivy, and pretty much anything. So the big emphasis was digging, pulling, mowing, piling, and cutting back.
We did not get far in terms of “winning” but we did achieve “feeling good about working together” and the all-important sense of doing what we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do if we were not “on holiday.”
The word recreation means, literally, to re-create. This means to create again, or to refresh, rejuvenate, and reanimate. I like to think of vacation as a time that moves beyond the work of repair and into the realm of being created all over again.
Two days in and we have a long way to go; but this is as much a spiritual exercise as it is physical and mental. Well I guess it wouldn’t be re-creation at all if God wasn’t involved, would it?
Here are some photographs from Day 2, gardening. I’m trying to look at the house and the garden from different angles, and learn to appreciate it – everything – in a new way.
– DEREK
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Derek has published seven books in the past decade (you can find them at https://www.amazon.com/Derek-Maul/e/B001JS9WC4), and there’s always something new in the works.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Derek taught public school in Florida for eighteen years, including cutting-edge work with autistic children. He holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and education from Stetson University and the University of West Florida.
Derek is active in teaching at his church: adult Sunday school, and a men’s Bible study/spiritual formation group. He enjoys the outdoors, traveling, photography, reading, cooking, playing guitar, and golf.
