Vacation

If a country is governed wisely,
its inhabitants will be content.
They enjoy the labor of their hands
and don’t waste time inventing
labor-saving machines.
Since they dearly love their homes,
they aren’t interested in travel.
There may be a few wagons and boats,
but these don’t go anywhere.
There may be an arsenal of weapons,
but nobody ever uses them.
People enjoy their food,
take pleasure in being with their families,
spend weekends working in their gardens,
delight in the doings of the neighborhood.
And even though the next country is so close
that people can hear its roosters crowing and its dogs barking,
they are content to die of old age
without ever having gone to see it. -“Tao Te Ching” Verse 80 by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell adaptation)

The question to ask yourself and relentlessly keep striving for:

How can I build a life that I don’t ever need to take a vacation from?

Not that vacations are bad. They’re awesome.

But they’re so much more awesome when they come from “wanting to do” instead of “needing to do.”