But one can’t feel quite in the depths of despair with two months vacation before them.
p. 203
I come to this quote as I write through my common place book musings on Anne of Green Gables at the commencement of a week of vacation. I suppose I sense the same sentiment. Expectation at the start of a new season, accompanied by no material negatives is a joyful thing.
There are plans: reading, writing, game playing, family visiting, movie watching, and puzzle assembling. And all will not go as planned. The visiting might be joyfully noisy enough that reading and writing take a back seat.
But beginnings necessarily follow on some ending. For Anne, it is the departure of their teacher, Mr. Phillips. The relationship was not deep—she had just stated on the previous page that she was not “so very fond” of him. And so the corner from a sad farewell to the vista of vacation was not a hard one to turn.
The thought of closing the computer, finishing the last task, and not feeling the pull of anything that has to be done does leave one buoyed in spirit and expectant for something good. Yet I can remember a time when the start of vacation was accompanied by regrets of imperfect work and the dread of hanging responsibilities. I believe I feel the expectancy more now as I’ve learned over the last couple of years to truly take a day off every week. With maybe two exceptions, I have put it all down—finished or not—once a week. And so it has been a training of sorts—as this vacation is not a go-somewhere vacation but a continue-here vacation. All the work is still right at my finger-tips if I want it. But I don’t want it this week. I’ve learned that I’m just not that critical. So I will rest so that when I return I can be useful. And in the meantime, I am not in the depths of despair over what didn’t get done—and there were things—and over what is waiting for me afterward—and there are things. Instead I look forward to a week of blessed vacation.
Lingering Over Leaves 