La Voz de Galicia – September 6, 2024 →
Suddenly, everything returns to its previous rhythm. The traffic, the people in the city, the lines at government offices, the children in the park, the empty villages. Suddenly, September arrives, and we are faced with the return to school, the return to work, the return to the place we call home—the return to that other life that is also ours but that we paused for as long as we were allowed to leave it. And although summer vacations don’t belong to everyone (since not everyone can take them, nor does everyone change their routine), there is something special about the idea of taking a vacation from oneself, of taking a break from one’s own life to experience someone else’s, even if only for a few days, an afternoon, or a weekend. The life of someone who lives by the sea, the life of someone who lives at the beach, the life of a constant traveler, of someone with a house in the mountains, of someone tending to a garden, or living in a big city… All those lives that aren’t ours, but that we try to inhabit when we decide (and are able) to take a break from our reality.
Perhaps summer vacations are nothing more than an expectation that never really gets fulfilled: whether because not everyone gets to have them, or because they ended up serving no purpose other than to leave us more tired or more burned out (figuratively speaking).
And sometimes, our personal reality is so complex that it becomes impossible to set aside real life, as that life takes up so much space that disconnecting for the sake of an imagined life isn’t feasible.
Maybe what I’m trying to say is that when vacations are nothing more than a distant illusion, a change in routine (even if it’s just for an afternoon) can also heal the weariness of the soul and help us see reality with fresh eyes…
