A week or so ago I had the pleasure to stay in the snowy, wintry, beautiful French Alps. A parallel universe in which my life for the first time in quite a while completely matched the perfect picture of life that I long since stored inside me.
All I needed to do was eat, ski, eat cake, shower, drink wine, eat some more, read a book. All my worries were reduced to keeping warm, dry & in one piece. So basically I hadn't a care in the world. I went off line as best I could (ok I had a little peak every now and then as there is no such thing as wifi free lodgings any more, at least not in western Europe) and was only required to socialize with the people around me.
Which if I think about it isn't so different from living abroad, where I had the parallel universe feeling most of the time. I must admit that I really liked it as well. It made life simpler somehow. I befriended mums that I met in the school playground and therefore saw every single day. We didn't need to phone, app, skype or email to keep in touch. The Netherlands seemed far away and the need to keep up with the news was never very pressing.
The lovely friends back home came to visit, which was great since it gave me the time to really talk to them. Or I visited the Netherlands for a joyous week of lunches, walks and lovely dinners with friends. Now that I am back in the Netherlands permanently I don't seem to find the time for these lunches, walks & dinners; at least not nearly as often as I imagined I would.
Somehow life is filled to the brim here with work, children, sport, family and well, life. And come to think of it I don't think I wouldn't want it any other way. Yes it is slightly over the top at times and hard work to ensure clean underwear is available for all family members on a daily basis and to provide enough fresh vegetables to fend off scurvy.
As long as I can have these blissful weeks, when I don't need to reschedule dentist visits, run out of guinea pig food on Sunday morning and don't have to craft props for the school musical in the middle of the night. Weeks in which I just have to be, rather than do things 24/7.
Life would probably be rather dull if I had those weeks all the time. And since I love things to be perfect, am rather critical when it comes to myself and find it impossible to say no to anyone (and I mean anyone), life will invariably be slightly manic.
But just today when I was talking to my son I realised that the parallel universe I sometimes long for, is right here, under my nose. All I have to do is strike up a conversation with the 13yo about the latest 'supply drops' in Advanced Warfare he plays with his mates. And how 'chill' it is that these 'supply drops' feature 'elite weapons', super cool 'purple combat suits' (I am not making this up) and how he got a 'bal-27 obsidion steed', featuring extra 'damage and range'. May be if I learn to master the play station I no longer need a holiday. I could just just randomly and virtually kill some people for an instant dosage of Zen.
