I’m not busy. I’m on vacation.

Am enjoying the beauty and tranquility of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The drives through the countryside are refreshing and there’s a seemingly endless supply of wineries, vineyards and hydroponics. Fresh fruit is for sale everywhere.

Although there were some threatening, billowing, dark clouds earlier this morning, the sun is shining as I relax in my Holiday Inn Express hotel room.

I placed a sign outside my room which reads, ‘Hang on! I’m busy.’

In the old days, the sign used to say, ‘Do not disturb’ on one side and ‘Please clean room’ on the other.

Today, it reads, ‘Hang on! I’m busy’ on both sides!

The truth is that I’m not busy because I’m on vacation.

The venerable Chögyam Trungpa used to say that there is no such thing as a vacation because life is still happening. Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean that you have an excuse to avoid life.

We couldn’t, for example, avoid seeing the tall, lanky, dark stranger with the bizarre, twisted ‘Joker’ grin walking down the regional road with cars zipping by and wondering. And we couldn’t avoid remembering that in spite of being surrounded by natural beauty we were still in the midst of a global pestilence.

But for me to say ‘Hang on! I’m busy’ in my hotel room (on both sides no less) is erroneous. It’s part of the old thinking which equates busyness with productivity and relaxation with sloth.

To relax is not to be slothful. Relaxation is a boon for body, mind, spirit and soul.

We are entering into a new era so perhaps the sign should read, ‘I’m relaxing now. Please clean the room later.’

Let’s Take it to the Next Level together,

Luba