6 minute read
FOUR IF BY SEA
snooze the big
after laying low for more than a year, what’s important seems clearer than before.
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by amanda mcdanel
I OFTEN FEEL AS THOUGH I’VE SEEN A LOT OF THINGS THAT JUST DO NOT MAKE SENSE. An actor became a governor. A reality star became president. A friend swears by the combination of a melted marshmallow and a Kraft single on a saltine cracker. My 11-year-old knows all of the words to “Get your Freak On” by Missy Elliot, as well as the entire Hamilton production. That according to Yahoo Finance, the Outer Banks is the third most popular vacation destination. In. The. Country.
And, to be honest, this whole past year just didn’t make sense either. It’s been a crazy 365 (plus) days of homeschooling, breakfasts for dinners, banana bread baking, Zoom and Google meets, attempts at deciphering common core math logic, rising social media consumption, and just generally living in what’s felt more than a bit like the real-life version of Groundhog Day.
But, to be fair, it’s also been a year of unplugging, decluttering, pitching the alarm clock, snuggling in the sheets, binge watching The Amazing Race, camping in the backyard, trading buttons for elastic waistbands, shelving the high heels for slip-on flats, and celebrating each and every Tuesday with tacos.
It’s like the universe rolled over and hit the snooze button to help us realize that maybe we weren’t doing it right after all.
Since I was a little girl, I’ve been searching for the “Instruction Manual” to life. Wondering if I was doing it “right,” making the “correct” choices, following all the “rules.” Around 12 years ago, though, I picked that manual up one morning, and it was as if it was written in an entirely different language. It was heavy and foreign, and I finally realized – as I had likely known instinctively all along – that this was not my story. So, I shelved that book, picked up a blank one and began to write. Making that single decision may have been the most important moment of my life.
Freed from the “shoulds,” the universe opened up for me to let my freak flag fly. My home no longer looked like a Pottery Barn catalog and more like an eclectic flea
market. The pumps were traded for flip-flops, the blazers for beach cover ups. I composed the music of my life using the recorder, the tambourine, the hammer dulcimer, the bongos and the steel drum. It was harmonious, original and beautiful. I believe the “great snooze of 2020” was similar to that cosmic nudge I once received, where everyone was forced to take a collective pause, look around and think about what exactly they wanted to wake up to when the world righted itself, and the alarm clock rang its rousing bell. For my family, that became clearest when we began planning a celebration for my daughter’s 11th birthday this past February. After a tough 11 months of We needed that uncertainty, unsettlement and unfamiliar territory, her one request was to go to time together Disney World, a place we had visited on in one of our favorite places previous birthdays. In the aftermath of 2020, however, it seemed to make NO sense. even if it was a Besides dealing with vaccinations, wisp of what it safety precautions and travel dilemmas, used to be. the operational details of the parks were less than ideal – and that’s putting it mildly. Park admissions were limited to 50 percent capacity, so you needed to make reservations to enter any of the parks on any given day. There were no Fast Passes, no dining reservations, no parades, no shows, no character meet and greets, and you even had to make an appointment to walk up and purchase a hot dog. The only thing that remained the same was the prices. Makes perfect sense, right? The funny thing is, though, that for us, it did. We needed that time together in one of our favorite places even if it was a wisp of what it used to be. Just being able to get out of our house and experience a new environment, to breathe fresh air, to feel the sunshine on our shoulders, and to enjoy the primal childhood joy of laughter. We split the initial 12-hour drive into two days, spending the first night at the Hampton Inn in South Carolina where we celebrated Valentine’s Day by eating Cracker Barrell in bed. (While not the traditional romantic Valentine’s meal, if you haven’t experienced the joy of eating Cracker Barrell in bed, especially if it’s not your bed, I highly recommend it.) The next day we drove the additional six hours through cold and rainy weather until we reached Orlando, where we caught our first glimpse of sunlight in more than three weeks.
With the windows rolled down and the music turned up, we arrived at our accommodations with huge smiles on our faces. Before even checking in, all four of us changed into bathing suits and belly flopped into the large pool, elated by the warm weather. The girls splashed and laughed, while I drank a giant frozen beverage out of a plastic palm tree-shaped glass. Before the day was over, I turned to my husband and said: If we leave tomorrow, it all would have been worth it. Disney World was just the icing on the cake.
While my family jetted away from our home on the Outer Banks, many of you have just made the reverse trip to wind up on these shores seeking solace, connection and the natural beauty of the outdoors. So why did my family leave these islands, when it seems to be exactly the place to go to get away from it all? It may defy all logic, but I bet you understand deep down because the vacation you’re on right now makes precisely the same sort of sense to you.
May we sit with these kinds of gut feelings and let them root all of our decisions in 2021 and beyond – because the way the universe unfolds is often right…we may just have to listen to that small voice inside ourselves in order to fully understand it.
The McDanel clan pause for a selfie on their trip to the Magic Kingdom.
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