H&M shirt
Zara shorts (similar)
Dune London mules
RayBan sunglasses
Linjer ring (c/o) (similar)
Modu Atelier earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: The Winnipeg Legislature – Winnipeg, Manitoba
“I’ve concluded that I’m meant to live a much more idle life,” I announced to Ian halfway through our trip to Greece. We were on a walk, shortly after I’d awoken from an unplanned nap – I dozed off on a lounger on the balcony, the book I’d been reading still in hand.
He just laughed.
In reality, of course, I’ve got resilience in spades. I manage stress like it’s a sport and I’m vying for the Olympic gold medal. I’m bored the instant I don’t have something to do, or at least a book to read. But when I take a full two weeks off, fully disconnecting from my life, so much of which revolves around work, I’m quick to realise that I wouldn’t be all that sorry to leave it all behind for good…
…you know, if I didn’t need to keep working to be able to keep paying for plane tickets so I can go on holidays and enjoy my idle time in the sun. (And pay bills. Why didn’t anyone warn me that my love for nice things would turn out to be so expensive? Oh, wait…)
We weren’t, in fact, particularly idle in Greece. We visited two islands in addition to Athens, saw countless historic sites and almost half a dozen museums. And even though I did doze off while reading a couple of times, I somehow managed to finish eight books while we were away, each one compelling and difficult to put down in its own way. (Pro tip: Find an Airbnb that comes with fully stocked bookshelves. If you love to read, you won’t regret it.) But what we didn’t do was spend any time rushing to respond to emails – or, in fact, checking emails at all. So maybe it’s not that I was meant for a more idle life but a less virtual one, wherein the actions I take aren’t dictated by the contents of my inbox.
There’s no world I can think of where a life like that is still possible, particularly in my line of work. I’m always on a deadline. But it’s nice to remember what it was like once in a while. My life hasn’t always looked this way, but it’s easy to forget that when I’m embroiled in day-to-day tasks. I’m on my second day back in my very rushed Canadian reality today. And while I’m still getting back into the swing of things, it took no time before the distinctive ping that Outlook makes when a new email lands in my inbox started reverberating in my head. So here I am, already contemplating my next holiday. Not because I relish the opportunity to be idle, although I do enjoy living life at a slower pace, but because every day without email is a breath of fresh air.
Disconnection means something different for everyone. So often, we hear that deleting Instagram temporarily is a cure all for tech stress. And maybe for some people it is. But I love Instagram and find so much inspiration there. It’s never a source of anxiety. In fact, I’m so busy that I often don’t get to devote as much time to it as I’d like. For me, getting away from my inbox is disconnecting. Closing Outlook is the quickest way I can refresh and reset. It’s also one of the hardest things for me to do, because I work from home and have a work cell phone that’s constantly by my side. But it’s so worth it.
A much more idle life probably isn’t realistic for me. My job is fast-paced and I take a lot of pride in my work, so I want to keep up. (I care – a lot, about everything I do and touch. It’s to my detriment as often as it is to my benefit.) But I could do better at setting boundaries so I can feel more relaxed in my daily life, and coming off this most recent vacation, that’s what I want to work towards. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I’m so excited to start sharing everything about our most recent trip, from my packing strategies to what I wore to how we spent our time. Stay tuned!
