Well, the thing about vacations is that they are not life, but the absence of life in so many ways. It’s so easy to come back from them depressed, anxious, afraid of one’s own life. So much easier to stroll through Disney World, checking out animals, eating great food, having no cares or responsibilities. Or so it seems. On the other side are e-mails, phone calls, chores, decisions, health,  bills.

I love vacations and need and want more. But I have learned to love coming home as well, or almost. I refuse to see my life as a tedious chore, although it sometimes feels that way.  I see the day after vacations as rituals of renewal and rebirth. Back to meaningful work. Back to friends and community. Back to my home and the animals here. Back to the blog and the community there. I want to face the world and today I can renew my life, give rebirth to it, dedicate myself to it again and again, every day.

The thing about renewal and rebirth, the thing about a meaningful life, is that it is not something a magic wand brings, you, or positive energy accomplishes all by itself. It is good and hard work, every hour, every day, on vacation and off. So on my first day back I will work on an afterward about Rose for the paperback edition of “Going Home,” out this Fall. I will think about the Rose E-Book original and plan it. I will prepare some photos for sale for an art show – Gallery 99 – in Glens Falls in a couple of weeks. I will have lunch with a friend.

I will renew my life and give birth to it. Every day, forever and again, for as long as it lasts. Every day is precious to me. Every day a gift. Every morning, I ask myself, what can I do to love my wife? My friends? My animals? My life?