I am back from Palm Springs and cannot say enough how much this trip turned out to be exactly what I had so desperately needed and more. I haven't been on a real 'two week vacation once you actually get where you're going to' since September of 1995! And I definitely recommend that you do this if you possibly can in any way. It doesn't have to cost a bundle. (VRBO- vacation rentals by owner is a fabulous invention and somebody should have told me about it long before I found it on my own- so definitely check that out.) Do whatever makes you happy and go wherever you are able, but just do it. You won't be sorry!
Please forgive me for not having the patience to get any vacation pictures up with this particular blog entry, but this is one of those times when I need to get out what I have to say before it ends up in the ether somewhere and then is only a blog I meant to write and never actually got to. So let me share one particular experience from the last day of our trip (and then I will be nice and share some photos and highlights later).
My husband and I were at the Palm Springs art museum. It is a place with mostly modern stuff and a lot of it is not easy for me to appreciate. They had a particular exhibit about 60's and 70's geometric abstractions, that my husband with his logical, actuarial mind was pretty keyed up to see.
Here is one that I thought was pretty neat.
Yaacov Agam, One and Another, 1977, serigraph, collection of Palm Springs Art Museum, gift of Martin Lawrence Limited Editions (Martin S. Blinder)
There were a few in a series like this that all had the same colored ovals and circles in the background, but different overlays that allowed you to see the colored areas in different perspectives.
So there we were casually enjoying the art, laughing at some of it- true. I was really feeling good about being open to some things I wouldn't normally like or even give much thought to. I was kind of lost in how good this whole trip had been and how it felt right to be winding down and heading home that next day.
All of a sudden another couple can be heard talking with one of the workers and it breaks into my thoughts. I hear them asking about one specific area that is closed while it is rearranged for the new season. The worker asks them when they will be coming back as the exhibit is due to be reopened in 3 days. I hear the woman say loudly, "probably never!" She goes on to exclaim how everything they came to see has been closed during their visit and that "I guess we just came at a bad time". Her husband is clearly annoyed.
While I never say a word to these people, I can't help but compare my own experience to the one that they are having. Here I am feeling as if I have come to Palm Springs at just the right moment for me and have had nothing but wonderful experiences and I can't imagine how things could be going so wrong for these people. They walk away in a huff and we see them several other times as we pass through the museum. They are hurriedly passing by the art and missing any chance to redeem their visit to this museum. They keep making rude comments and they just don't see anything good at all.
It got me to thinking about some of the insights I have received from the universe recently, including some from this here blogging habit I've gotten into. There's a post I read about how getting angry doesn't solve anything... found
here.
(Came in handy when I got home to find a small water mess caused by me thinking I could cut corners before we left. I was a tiny bit ticked at myself for that one.) Christine's post was about a little more serious attitude adjustment, but I just couldn't help thinking of how different things could have been for my museum couple if they had only stepped back for a moment and taken advantage of whatever good there was in their day. And then I thought about a post that I wrote myself-
here that ended with me talking about how I really wanted to lighten my work load and how that has already happened. Yes, that's right. While I was packing up to leave for this trip, I had gotten a phone call from my main client informing me that her husband had lost his job and that she would have to cut back working with me to only about once a month.
It's as if whatever you put out there you'd better have some purpose in it because your attitude and your intentions mean an awful lot in this life. And when the timing is right, things WILL happen. Sometimes faster than you might expect. Sometimes, slower. You all know that this past year has been somewhat of a struggle for me as I have dealt with not being able to get to Texas no matter how hard my husband and I have tried. And yet it feels good to know that even when you are not exactly where you physically believe you should be it often turns out that you might be right where you belong, in any given moment. And that the next big thing could be right around the corner if only you will open your eyes and see. Kind of like the art, it all depends on your perspective.
