New Year, New You

by John de Graaf

 

 

Where does the time go? Here it is at the end of January and I haven’t made my New Year’s resolutions yet. A friend once told me it’s OK to make those resolutions anytime, so I’m getting to it. But, how about you?

 

I know you’re probably a little cynical about resolutions. Every year it seems we make the same commitments: I’m going to exercise more, lose weight, forego a latte or cheese Danish every week, and eat only fruits and vegetables. I’m going to…(fill in the blank). We try but it’s always so hard to stay on the wagon and make sacrifices, even if we know they’re good for us.

 

So this year I’m making a resolution that I know will be just as good for my health and family as all those other sacrifices. It’s something I will do and enjoy: I’m going to take a real vacation, get away from home and go somewhere fun.

 

Well, truth in advertising, I made the same resolution last year and the year before that. But, unlike most resolutions, I followed through. Last winter, I spent a week in Death Valley National Park with my wife and son. It was delightful to leave Seattle’s rain for sunny skies and endless fields of yellow wildflowers. We enjoyed daily hikes through canyons of multi-colored rocks, finding sparkling green oases and cheery waterfalls amid the harsh desert landscape. I returned to work feeling fresh and revived and was more productive and creative in the office.

 

This past July, I took time off and went on a car-camping trip to the Canadian Rockies with my son, a friend of his and his friend’s dad. It was a great opportunity for strengthening the connection with my son, amplified by the indelible memory of the evening in Jasper National Park when a grizzly bear just happened to wander into our camp. (I’m adding a new resolution this year: bring bear spray).

 

I observed the restorative and family-bonding capacities of vacation time when I spent a week in Yosemite National Park. I was producing a segment of a film called The Great Vacation Squeeze and took the opportunity to combine work with vacation. Yosemite’s great advocate, the renowned naturalist John Muir, was also a believer in vacations. In 1876, which marked the nation’s one-hundredth birthday, Muir proposed a new kind of “Centennial freedom,” guaranteed vacation time.

“We work too much and rest too little,” Muir declared. “You cannot leave your business, yes, but you will leave it. Killed by overwork, you will end up in the hearse of the ‘jolly undertaker’.” Muir went even further: “Compulsory education may be good; compulsory recreation may be better.”

 

I think Muir was right. At Pines Campground in the world famous Yosemite Valley, I met the Johnson-Blanco family from Los Angeles as they enjoyed breakfast at their camp table. Each year they come to Yosemite with extended members of the family for a magical week together of re-energizing and re-connecting. Bill Doherty of the University of Minnesota says family vacations are often the strongest memories adults have of their childhood. “But,” he adds sadly, “a third fewer families vacation together today compared to a generation ago, and children spend only half as much unstructured time outdoors.”

 

While the Johnson-Blanco children and their cousins talked excitedly about eating a good breakfast for the day’s hikes, games and swimming, I talked with their dad, Dana. “On the drive north the kids exclaimed, ‘we get to see the stars tonight.’ For city kids that’s special,” he reflected. “Coming together, breaking bread with family, all the things they do here, they’ll remember all their lives. I know I will.”

 

Unfortunately, most Yosemite visitors weren’t as relaxed as the Johnson-Blancos. The average visitor is there for only five hours, rushing to take in and photograph as many sights as possible with too little vacation time. Many visitors were harried and still attached to their cell phones, Blackberries and other electronic leashes. One bicyclist complained that he was hearing a phantom cell phone ring. “I don’t even have my cell phone with me, but I keep reaching into my pocket thinking I hear it ringing,” he said. “It’s kind of sad.”

 

It is important to make your New Year’s resolution today. Set time aside for a vacation this year. Be sure to go somewhere away from the day-to-day demands of home. If you possibly can, leave the electronic gadgets behind. Check email as sparingly as possible. I sometimes find it helpful to do a couple of quick checks to reassure myself that there are no emergencies, but I don’t carry a gadget with email access. It limits me to Kinko’s or internet cafes, forcing me to keep my email checks to a minimum.

 

Taking a vacation doesn’t have to be expensive nor complicated. Purchase tickets early so you can’t easily change your mind. Members of my wife’s family own a timeshare on Payette Lake in Idaho. By having a prepaid resort vacation; it’s pretty certain they’ll take time out to go there each year. Remember, vacations aren’t a luxury, but are essential for health, family bonding and being a more productive worker when you get back to the job. Happy vacationing!

 

John de Graaf is the Executive Director of TAKE BACK YOUR TIME

 

About John de Graaf