Flights of Peaceful Fancy

My travel plans this summer don’t require a suitcase or even an overnight bag. I don't have any plane tickets or hotel accommodations booked.

I'm not going anywhere on vacation this summer. 

But I did travel across town for brunch. {Does that count?}

When my sister and I confabbed about a place to take my mother for her birthday brunch a few weeks ago, her love of art and interesting food led us to a place that combines very quirky art and exceptionally delicious food.

When we invited two of her friends to join us, our conversation might as well have been a feature on the Travel Channel. Linda had just returned from China and Mary got in the night before from Chicago. 

They both had a summer full of more travel planned and my mother would be joining them for a ladies junket to California. 

Even my sister {who doesn’t like to travel} will be jetting off to the west coast in a few weeks. 

I was the only one without any travel plans. 

And really it’s my own fault. I just couldn’t decide what to do or where to go this summer.

So what do you do when everyone’s summer plans look a whole lot better than yours?

Maybe it’s time to appreciate the stillness. 

I live in Orlando. Our beautiful city has experienced tumultuous days of late. 

I sit in an office just one block away from the nightclub where last week's tragic event occurred. Years ago before that building became a nightclub, it was an Italian restaurant where I'd often eaten lunch. I work for the hospital that received so many of the injured patients. 

Maybe it's time for some peaceful pondering.

It seems as if every day there are a handful of ways God has grabbed my attention and I let them slip through my fingers because I'm moving on to the next thing that distracts me. 

Maybe this little hollowed-out space of a season is the place where I can listen to the echoes of my soul. The reverberations ringing with whispers to rest, unwind, unbend. 

A time of soul rest can reinvigorate beauty and creativity.

I used to get excited about writing stories. Fiction instead of facts. 

I liked making up characters and seeing what they’d do as they came to life on the page, since I was never quite sure where my characters would take me. 

It was fun creating histories for them and exciting experiences that were so different from my own. I wrote short stories all through my girlhood but when I went to college, the idea of calling myself a creative writer was intimidating. 

I thought I should major in journalism to give myself a wider range of job opportunities. 



It seemed safer, especially after I took the required creative writing class for journalism majors where I felt intimidated. I'd sit with fingers crossed, hoping class would end before it was my turn to read what I’d written. 

I’d listen as the other students read their pieces for critique and I thought they were beautifully written and riveting.

I told myself that I’d made a good choice to write about facts - - the who, what, when, where of reporting — and I wouldn't worry that my writing wasn’t all that creative.

But this summer even though I'll be staying close to home, I might capture a few fanciful thoughts that travel through my mind. Maybe I'll create a character, a scene and some dialogue and let my imagination run away with me.

Maybe my flight of fancy will take me to the banks of the Thames in Shakespeare’s London, or Fitzgerald’s Paris during the roaring 20s, or maybe I'll even find myself in California, too, but during the gold rush of the 1800s.

Sometimes this mode of traveling is the best kind, don't you think?

Maybe your summer is busy and you’re off to explore new destinations. Or maybe like me, you’re staying close to home. 

Whatever you do, I hope your soul finds a sacred space of peace. I hope your art brings renewed joy. I hope your journeys are enriching. And I hope your prayers bring you a deep communion with God. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Phil. 4:8

I think I might try to squeeze in another brunch across town, though.

At my mother’s birthday shindig, we feasted on jambalaya, crab legs, maple-glazed bacon, salads in Mason jars and French toast made from croissants. 

They were cousins to the scrumptious cronuts topped with rum whipped cream I wrote about here on an earlier visit to the artsy restaurant.

Whatever you do, may your summer days be fancifully and peacefully inspired. 

I'm joining my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Join me there to read more posts from my blogger friends.