Vacation Without the Family

Ottawa River, Whitewater Region, acrylic, 12" x 16"

Blog 23

This time the title and subject for my blog came easily, but the translation of “Ferien von der Familie” proved rather difficult. I asked my circle of bilingual relatives for help but we decided that vacation without the family would be the best translation.

Our family owns a cottage share which grants us five weeks of use throughout the year. When we purchased our share, we could not use all the weeks, as our kids still went to school. To have the most benefit of our share, my husband spent the fall week at the cottage and I went with friends during our spring week. At that time, I was a full-time mom, and it was a great break from the daily chores and a good way to have my husband and kids appreciate my work at home more. Out of this necessity evolved a yearly ritual of spending time with friends as a vacation from my family, not only by going to the cottage but also by participating in painting trips.

Often, I spend my weeks with my painting buddies, which is great because it allows me to dedicate my days to painting without distractions. There are no interruptions during our days outside in nature (except forced by Mother Nature). However, during the last two years, I also spent a week per year with friends who are more interested in other areas of life. A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed a week at the cottage with two of my friends who work in very different fields than I.

Even though I did not paint anything but a small watercolour sketch, I still found a lot of time to be creative and came home very relaxed, recharged, and full of new ideas.

I guess the reason is that we were all in the same boat: We were happy to get out of our regular routine to slow down and spend some time by ourselves. There was a mutual understanding that we could take time for our own self-care. During the time we spent together every day, we had interesting conversations, sat at the beach watching over the water, and went on peaceful walks in nature. I also had the pleasure of being able to express my process of felting to them, and them witnessing the progress of my creative projects. By being exposed to my creative projects, it aroused their interest in picking up again a hobby that they had long neglected and in learning something new, respectively. At the same time, a deeper look into their life and work also gave me some new insights and inspiration for my business. Even though we had not planned on it, we had created a natural mastermind event, where all of us emerged with more clarity and some plans to implement actions.

If you are in business and are interested in a different approach to networking by combining networking and walking my "Walk 2 Talk" event might be of interest to you. My friend Marie and I are looking to create a group of entrepreneurs in the Orleans/Cumberland area to mastermind, support and be accountable to each other. On a bi-weekly basis, we will meet for an hour long walk in the Orleans/Cumberland area before sitting down with a cup of coffee or tea to discuss what came up during the walk and how we can support each other.

This is a free event. The next meeting is on July 15, 2019, at 6:30pm. This time, we will meet at the Aquaview Community Centre. Afterwards, we can enjoy a beverage at Cafe Latte Cino. For updates and to register please go to https://www.facebook.com/events/377062362906076/. If you are not on Facebook, you can also send me an email to info@KerstinPeters.ca.

Are you interested in learning some new painting or felting skills? Then please go to my website www.KerstinPeters.ca to check out my summer workshops.