Smell the Lake

Inertia – a tendency to remain unchanged

Inertia makes it unnatural to get on the interstate and ramp up speed. It also makes it hard to get off the interstate and slow down. With thought and a plan, it makes a nice balance of making distance and scenery. We’ve been taking selfies in front of post offices this year as an excuse to see all corners of our state so we’re seeing lots of rural towns. I wonder what makes some of the towns successful versus others with empty downtowns and rundown houses. We’re off the highway and we’ve been through 6 villages on our way to the lake for a long weekend. We’re still nowhere near the lake, but Trish keeps saying, “Can you smell the lake?” I figure she is taunting me because I have a notoriously poor sense of smell or maybe I’m average, but she can smell everything. Finally we saw water, but I still couldn’t smell the lake. Then we were crossing a bridge and the wind was just right and I smelled the lake. Aaaaahhhh, vacation.

 “Vacation is to real life like a tunnel is to a rainy day”

Why is it that on vacation I get up earlier? I see many more sunrises than in “real” life, even on days off. It is wonderful to get up early, take a walk, breathe deeply, and watch the sunrise. At some point, I try the impossible task of capturing the scene. And at some point, I become aware of many other souls quietly doing a similar thing. The trifecta is finding a perch to observe the calm of the morning. I don’t suppose birds play, but it looks like playing as they coast then bank into the wind. Turtleheads pop out of the water. I briefly note the smell of the partially eaten fish the seagulls dragged onto the dock, the rotting seaweed, the teenager who vocally sees no point of sunrises especially with their family, and the impatient driver squealing tires to get around someone. Real life is so filled with things to be done and getting places. Vacation is so filled with being in the moment it seems impossible to have time for such a rush.