A Lesson in Spontaneity

I’m not a spontaneous person. Creating lists and plans are part of my coping mechanisms. When I’m stressed I rely on my bullet journal to get me through. I start each day knowing what needs to be accomplished and I develop plans for getting it all done.

This weekend, our family was on the way to another basketball show for my husband. I was talking about school and rambling on as I always do during long car rides. Somewhere between a classroom anecdote and my daughter asking to stop so she could go to the bathroom, my husband made the outlandish suggestion that, “Maybe we should get a hotel for the night and stay in this town.”

My first reaction was a knee jerk response. “But we don’t have any of our stuff.”

I thought the conversation was over and it was on to another discussion. In my mind, there was no way we could just get a hotel room on the spot and stay in a city two hours from home. It wasn’t that bad of a drive and we could probably make it home before dark.

“We’ve been doing a lot of driving lately, and it might just be nice to slow down and relax for the night,” was his very reasonable reply.

I knew as soon as he dropped the “R” word that I had been hooked.

It’s no secret that the past few weeks have been hectic in our house. My husband has had several shows a week as we’ve hit the climax of his travel season. We had a guest stay with us for a week. School is entering the insanity of standardized testing periods. Relaxation has become a foreign word, which is how I was enticed.

I handed my husband excuse after excuse as to why it was a ludicrous idea. A lot of it came down to my fear of spontaneity.

After the promise of a stop at the mall to pick up essentials, we decided to spend Saturday night in St. Clairsville, Ohio. My husband had two shows and once they finished we found a hotel with a vacancy and we relaxed.

A few years ago this type of weekend would have sent me into a full fledged panic attack. Doing something that wasn’t pre-planned was outside of my comfort zone. Showing up to a hotel with nothing but a plastic bag containing a toothbrush and undergarments would have made me cry. But I felt freedom this weekend from all of the chains of anxiety that used to bind me. I realized that life doesn’t fall apart when we make last minute plans, and actually it was a lot of fun. We made many memories on the trip and we enjoyed the power of relaxation as a family.

The Ameri Brit Mom