A few days ago I was reminded of a trip we took to the Redwoods. I thought it was just a few years ago, and remember it vividly because despite its relative short length - just six days and 1,200 miles or so total - it was one of those Very Good Times that don't happen often enough.
One of my most treasured memories is a small moment on Day Four. We had spent the day sightseeing and were back at our B&B, eating a picnic dinner, enjoying a glass of wine, and feeling relaxed and content. We had dinner plans the next night and then planned to start the drive home, stopping somewhere along the road for the night.
But instead of following the Plan, we extended our stay at the B&B for another night, trading one more night of contentment for a somewhat longer drive the next day.
This is why we decided to stay an extra night. Sitting here, eating bread and cheese and sipping local wine - we never wanted to leave!
Was it worth it? You bet! But more than that, the experience gave me the first push toward being less rigid, less determined to stick to a schedule, less wedded to a Plan and more able to act spontaneously when an opportunity presents itself.
I wrote about our daily adventures during that trip, giving myself time each night to process the things we did during the day, and to preserve my impressions of each day. After we got home those daily ramblings were posted on my blog. (ChristyMystery started in 2009, when I published my first mystery novel, and all the posts there are still live. I'm sure a lot of what's there is way out of date, but it's still there if you want to take a look.)
Those posts are linked below. It was kind of fun to go back and see what stood out at the time, and look at the pictures - we take a LOT of pictures, but there's a fair sampling of the trip on the posts.
The biggest shock was that this trip was TEN years ago! It was supposed to be a shakedown road trip for a longer trip planned for that fall; a trip that didn't happen until the summer of 2021. You see, we took that lesson in spontaneity to heart, and ended up bailing on the planned fall trip, for a lot of very valid reasons. Having given ourselves permission to abandon the Plan had shown us that the world didn't fall apart just because we didn't try to stubborn through A Plan just because it was A Plan.
I have not regretted learning that lesson - though it has had to be reinforced time and again in the intervening decade - and I try to apply it to my creative life as well.
Which is why I am going to now go toss several pages of a story that isn't working, and head in another direction. Because I can.