Finding my Home Away from Home

This week I took a 2 day trip to Lancaster, PA.  Nope, I’m not here to hang out with the Amish.  Lancaster (pronounced LAN-kiss-ter) is near and dear to my heart because I did my undergrad here at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M).  

Why?

Well, I have been dying for a get away.  DYING. For like the last 2 years.  Maybe more.  I have been in trial hell since about August 2019 – BEFORE COVID.  I had 3 trials in February 2020 – yes THREE – all contested – all ugly and then you all know what happened in March 2020.  I took on so much and ran so freakin’ HARD because of the rewards right on the other side.  A trip to Riviera Maya with some of my best girlfriends, a Disney Cruise with my dad and step-mom, a trip to wine country Charlottesville with another bestie girlfriend tribe.  All of those things I didn’t just want, I needed them to make me feel like a sane person.

Then the virus.

Now that we are finally on the other end here in summer 2021 . . . I looked at my husband and said I need to get away.  For a quick moment, panic sets in his eyes and his knee jerk reaction fear was that I am leaving HIM (although I have given NO indication of this – we are good peeps!).  Hubbies out there – if you are reading this – us mamas are NOT leaving YOU.  We are NOT “leaving” our kiddos.  We are calling a timeout.  We are putting ourselves in the corner.  We need peace and quiet and time to just freaking BE.  Once he understood where I was coming from, which was QUICK, he is a keeper, I booked my room and a spa treatment for the very next week.  

Which is how I am here, in Lancaster, PA.

(Wendy, why are you writing this?  Shouldn’t you put all work down?  Folks, writing isn’t work for me.  It is my lifeline.  It makes me come alive. Getting away has ALLOWED me the time and space to do this and write (and it has only been about 4 hours – WOW – see what amazing things can happen if us moms just have even 4 hours to ourselves!?).

In any event.  Thought One:  I want to go to the Four Seasons in Baltimore.  I need to go to the Four Seasons in Baltimore.  I DESERVE to go to the Four Seasons in Baltimore.  So I went online about to book it and a spa day and holy sticker shock.  One night was about $500.  2 nights you get the 3rd free . . . so I thought two for me and the third for the fam and we would make an event out of it. . . and then when I went to check out and saw $1,500 for JUST the room (taxes etc) . . . not inc. parking, food, spa, etc.  Nope, nope-ity nope, not yet.  

What else?

Then I remembered the Lancaster Arts Hotel right by F&M.  The rooms are super cute, exposed brick galore, bathrobes in the closet, spacey, all the same vibe as a swanky hotel downtown and just $180 a night.  YES PLEASE.  

So . . . I arrived today with no plan or agenda but just to sit my butt down on one of those awesome adirondack chairs on the green that was NOT there in my day.   You know – pop a squat Pretty Woman style.  So, that is just what I did.  I got a wrap from the cutest little French Deli.  Found a chair.  Ate my lunch. Read my book.  Got sleepy.  Closed my eyes.

Extreme relaxation took hold of me.  

I felt . . . 

In a word 

Home

Wow.

Why?

I got to thinking (because with all this quiet, I actually have time to do that).

F&M was the first home I CHOSE.  F&M was the first place I had a heck of a lot of peace.  I was on my own.  I made my own decisions.  I made big decisions.  I grew.  I had no one to answer to but to me.  

Again, it was my first CHOSEN home.

For me, that brings me EXTREME peace, centeredness, awareness, an ability to reflect and grow.

I discovered I didn’t need the Four Seasons.  I didnt need Fancy Schmancy

(although I have to tell you – Lancaster and its restaurant scene and the Lancaster Arts Hotel are very much a well-kept secret and pretty darn fancy schmancy and delicious)

I needed to simply get back to a place I used to call HOME. 

Where is that for you?

Mama’s – I encourage you to take a trip back to the place that feels like Home.  With no true agenda (other than maybe a massage and facial which is what I scheduled!).  Just give yourself some time to wander and be.  If you could book that right the heck now, where would you go?  What is stopping you from booking it?  I would so love for you to comment below and tell me you booked it and where you are going!