On Post Holiday Blues
We have all been there, the despondency and mild dysphoria that marks the end of our holiday..return back to the order (or disorder) of everyday ordinary life. We catch ourselves in the nostalgia of the €0.80 espressos sipped in the ancient alleys of time gone by with the warm glow of the sun tingling on our foreheads.
I write this piece as I stand in the aisle of the train, packed as tight as sardines (and probably just as smelly). I rub my ear to find a few grains of the remnant black sand from the Maderian archipelago.
The sun kissed glow slowly fading on my face, while the t-shirt tan-lines on the arm will remain longer. I suppose on the other side, I feel at ease to return to work tomorrow, an ease where things do not matter as much as they did one week ago before I left for holiday. A grand perspective that people on a small island manage to do okay, and in-fact seem happier despite their higher debt:GDP ratio (economic metrics rarely encapsulate the full human condition).
Possibly, in the subliminal realm I have internalised the wisdom of
- Siestas … (power nap for 20mins between our morning hikes and afternoon beach sessions followed by a 30-45mins nap pre-dinner and nightlife)
- Eating well… Mediterranean diet, need I say more
- The magic of holiday relationships
I will finish by expanding on point 3. More-so than friendships, it is the romantic encounters we have on a holiday that exhibit the greatest emotional valence. On this dreary grey Scottish evening I do ask myself, what if my future life partner was the forever tanned petite Maderian lady, when our paths transiently crossed by the seaside, the brief exchange on the topic of 'best restaurants in the area'...should I have conversed longer to explore the veracity of this connection?
Or the thought that life could have been just as exciting but very different, if I completed my university education in Innsbruck. This particular thought inspired by an evening spent with the most beautiful Austrian (of Polish x Croatian heritage). The beautiful light eyed, dark blonde confirmed in me the notion that satisfaction lies in forever keeping busy in whatever subject of nature inspires you. She brought to mind the Japanese concept of IKIGAI, a concept I became familiar with at my local bookstore, winter of 2020. I remain dazed with the precision of her verbal expression delivered in its central European eloquence, some may see it as 'the cold Austrian front', but now knowing her, albeit at a mildly deeper level I beg to differ.
Yes, since my arrival home the mental state has taken an aura of happy-sad, satisfied-despondant, satieted-wanting more and all the rest. But I can wholeheartedly confirm, clichéd as it maybe ... traveling does broaden the mind!
