On Stretching Out Vacation Even After We're Back At Work

What about stretching out our vacation even after we're back at work? After our initial discussion of getting back to work after vacation, let's see if there's a little juice in this stretching idea. 

It's one thing to finish vacation and get on with what will likely be long rounds of regular, normal work days. But what if we could bring a little vacation to the job with us?

We might find this particularly appealing when our personal life and our work life could be better. In such circumstances vacation takes on a rather inflated life of its own. If that's the case, we need to take an important step before wondering how we can extend our vacation. It's time for an extended sit down with Our Heavenly Father. When all is a bit - or a lot - off, He's just waiting to give us a loving Hand, a gentle boost, the grace to bear up under any sorrow or suffering. So why not simply bring any and all difficulties to Him?

But you already know that, right?

OK. But even if work and domestic are pretty good,  prioritize some quiet time with the Lord. We've told Him in the simplest thoughts and words all that's causing you to want to extend your vacation. Since He's got the whole world in His Hand, He'll certainly scoop us up with His Mighty Arm and set us down gently with all the grace we need, whether our desire is driven by unhappiness or simply the difficulty in ending what was a splendid break from the ordinary.

Before I got all of this straight, I once tried to "mentally" stay on vacation. For days or weeks after we got back from vacation I would walk about our relatively urban setting and imagine being on that beautiful beach; or fantasize about buying a summer home in our vacation town (even though we couldn't afford it!); even semi-planned booking another slug of time there later in the summer (even though we couldn't even afford that).

Kind of an undisciplined, frankly God-less approach at the time.

By by His grace, and despite my own enormous spiritual short-comings, things sit right now and there's a least a basic level of trust in God's mercy and love. With that settled, here's how extending vacation might go:

Assuming summer brings some even slight respite from the normal pressing urgency that sometimes drives us crazy during the work day, we might find a few minutes here and there to take a mini-vacation. But rather than just let our minds wander back to where we once were, basking in the sun or snoozing poolside - or whatever - we might turn our mini-vacation at work into a little spiritual cocktail. Here's a simple modest recipe:

Read a short passage of some good spiritual writing. Read it early in the day. Keep it handy and come back to it one or more times during the day. Go back to it and read it again. Meditate on it.

In case you don't have a spiritual passage handy right now and you want to start your stretch-vacation, here's one I've found helpful. It's addressing how to strengthen our trust in God's Providence by distrust of self.

“The soul arrives at a perfect distrust of self only by degrees. Her first successes come from the repeated experience of her weakness, which leads her to feel no surprise at her falls. Yet it requires years to bring certain souls up to this degree on account of their fancied goodness and imagined strength of virtue. Afterwards, by the force of God’s disposing grace, the soul reaches the stage where she is no longer not only not surprised by her repeated falls, but rather surprised that she, in her weakness, does not fall more often. She returns to Jesus after each, with the same filial confidence, expresses her regret, renews her resolution, and embraces Him, without supposing for a moment that He will remember her infidelity. Finally, she acquires such a sense of her nothingness, that seeing herself so small and so weak in the presence of Almighty God, each of her faults becomes the occasion of an ardent act of love, and an act of unshaken confidence in the Infinite Goodness of God, and her weakness makes her draw ever closer to the Source of Strength.

“Thus, in the depths of its nothingness, the soul finds the repose of confidence in God. The real and only foundation of this confidence is God alone – God, Who is infinitely good, all-powerful and faithful to His promises. On the one hand, we of ourselves can do nothing in the supernatural order, for the abyss which separates human nature from the supernatural is impassible. On the other hand, God requires that we be perfect, that we be Saints and live immaculate in His presence. Therefore, He will give us all that is necessary to accomplish His will. And not alone will He give it, but He is bound to give it – otherwise He would exact an end without supplying the means. This obligation God has imposed on Himself. He has even given, in the Gospel, His Word of Honor. He was sworn, and His Word is unfailing. And He entreats us not to doubt His Word, nor His Goodness. Furthermore, He bids us to recognize that the efficacy of prayer does not depend on the merits of him who prays, but solely on the intrinsic force of the Divine Promise. The more miserable we are, the more promptly and fully should our cry of distress call forth the help of God… Let these consoling truths sink into your mind, and lift up your heart. If God be with you, who can be against you?” (Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R.)

There's a lot of meat here in a mere two paragraphs. You might find these two paragraphs sufficient to last for a few days, even a week. Read, think/meditate - re-read meditate. 

Or just pick any good, short, inspiring spiritual writing you prefer.

The result: one good holy cocktail to imbibe during those little stretch mini-vacations. 

Cheers!