Finding Simple: What My Vacation Self Knows That My Everyday Self Forgets
Just returning from vacation with my sweet family of four. It takes me a while to settle into vacation. Partly the self-employed gig (insert well-loved hustle) and I think also an unsettledness to letting go of the normal routine of everyday life.
I know this, so I made sure to see each sunset. Feel each grain of sand below my feet. Bask in the warmth. Linger in the giggles. Or enjoy the extra order of fries we shared because it was vacation.
I spoke to a friend that understood. She told me she often wants to reassess or change her life on the way home from vacation. We both realized it's so much more than this and yet not at all.
What if it's really about simplifying? And I don't know another right now that hasn't talked about simplifying. It's what drew me to my partnership of almost a decade. She represented simple. Camping. Easy weekends. A lot of home time. Hiking. Feet-on-the-ground type things. And for a human like me that can float away with my feelings, simple is good. Better than good.
And even though we fell in love with simple, we are still striving toward it as we raise our boys—work, pay bills, and adjust over and over. The simplicity we crave seems to slip through our fingers in the day-to-day of parenting, deadlines, and responsibilities. Yet we keep reaching for it together.
So what was I hanging on to when we returned from vacation? My family under one roof. Okay, I still get this sometimes. Writing in the mornings. I can create this again. Very little house chores. Okay, well, scrap that—we have welcomed in dogs, cats, and chickens. But I can keep it simple.
I was conscious of my hustle on vacation. Limited my screen time. Limited my selling retreats time. I can do this going forward. But will I?
So I am thinking of my list of what I craved on vacation when I returned home:
Time in our garden
Time with our animals in the sun. Sitting side by side.
Set time in the morning to write.
Set time in the morning to lift weights without negotiation.
Set time to walk our dogs (not checking off the list - but quality time).
Here's the thing with simple: In order to have it, we must realize it takes up time. To schedule simple. To guard simple. To stick to simple. If we are really focused on the simple, we may just be too busy for the other noise.
As I unpack my suitcase and settle back into our home, I'm making a promise to my vacation self. I'm committing to bringing that deliberate simplicity into our everyday rhythms. Not as another item on an endless to-do list, but as the framework that holds everything else. Perhaps the beauty of vacation isn't just in the escape, but in the reminder of how we truly want to live. Simple doesn't mean easy—it means intentional. It means choosing what matters most and letting the rest fall away. I'm learning that simplicity isn't something we find; it's something we create, one sunset, one shared moment, one conscious choice at a time.
