Vacation

Some people think we elves get to start our annual vacation as soon as Santa returns home and we unhitch the reindeer and feed them and put the sleigh up on its runners until next year.

But the truth is...Christmas continues for us all the way through Three Kings Day!

Only then do we get to take a vacation. The best ones are when we get to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Then it's back to the North Pole and making toys for next year!

Vacation? I need one. Except here in England we call them »holidays«. I need a holiday. I don't necessarily need to vacate anything. Except my brain, perhaps.

The very first vacation I ever took was to Niagara Falls. I couldn't believe the rush of the water. For a long time I stood on the Canadian side and watched the water go over the Horseshoe Falls. The roar filled my ears so that I couldn't hear my sister say when it was time to go and catch the bus.

I wanted to stay and watch that waterfall forever.

When I dream of the perfect vacation now, I imagine myself travelling to an impossible Cuba.

I can feel the rhythms and the response and the beat in my soul in my blood in my breath. The heat of the sun, the swaying of my hips, the scents of mingled fruit and sweat in the streets.

And in the dark, I hear the waves coming to the beach, again and again and again.

Until finally I rest.

When our vacation was over the rain hasn’t ceased. Therefore our good bye included mixed feelings, some relief but also a suggestion of wistfulness