I just looked down at my phone...I recently changed the wallpaper to a photo of my youngest son walking along the beach in Outer Banks, North Carolina. We'd been staying in Manteo for our vacation, but that day I took him and his brother Quent down to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. On the way back we decided to stop and walk along the beach, and it was just such a beautiful setting and a fun day that I had to snap a pic. Sometimes, they capture the moment perfectly, and this one did.
Why did I change my photo? Last week was horrible. My job is really important to me; it's my career and I have been there a long time. I'm invested in it. And lately my workplace went awry to a degree that the thought of going back in the door gave me a full blown panic attack (seriously: I left in the middle of the day, went home and cried for 2-3 hours, and eventually calmed enough to go back). I needed something to hang on to, anything, to bring me peace and some joy and confirmation that my life was more than that. And vacations and memories with my children nearly always do that.
I'm lucky to have had several vacations with my boys that take us out of every day life and give us something special: time with each other, away from responsibilities, to just have fun and be a family. When everything else seems upside down, my family is the thing that rights me.
Things are better at work, thankfully. We got through the storm, and I'm not going anywhere. But I know that if it happens again (and face it, it probably will), my anchors are elsewhere, and will give me a reason to keep going.
