Weekend complete.

A short evacuation plan executed to the fullest.

As I stuffed my belongings into my backpack, I got a little annoyed at how weekends fly by like short films, while weekdays drag on at the pace of multi-season TV series.

But I got over it.

Because I had finished packing all the things I had brought:

Tracksuits
Thermal shirt
Sweater
Mascara
Toothbrush
Two pairs of shoes
Bag of underwear
That’s it.
I adore these “unplanned” trips, without a ton of stuff to “SORT THROUGH.”

On Saturday, I sat like a cupcake “placed gently” on my husband’s fishing chair, wrapped in a woolen blanket knitted by Mom… and tried to breathe in everything I could.

I absorbed the slow, rippling calm of the sea.
I gathered all the winter sun rays that peeked from behind the clouds.
I caressed the swaying grasses.
My eyes darted over millions of pebbles as if searching for even one “heart-shaped” stone—and I found it!

We walked, hand in hand, fingers intertwined, to the neighboring country and back.

And finally, we watched the red sun, shy as if embarrassed, set.
A sun we wouldn’t see on Sunday.

That morning, the storm roared.
Yesterday’s glassy sea had turned into foamy waves, whipped by wind that came like a nine-headed dragon.

We stood together, gripping the earth almost with our toes, wearing everything we had brought, probably looking from the side like we had been driven from home.

The howling wind burned our cheeks, which in the evening take on the color of steaming borscht in a bowl…
Like a big old “blanket,” thoughts jumbled under a huge hood settled into the right little drawers, more orderly than before.

We returned both well.
Colleagues, in work and in life.
We joked that the trip could count as a productive business trip, during which we pieced together so many strategic plans that now, in my mind—freed from unnecessary thoughts—spark and explode into fireworks of making those plans real, tingling with anticipation for all the GOOD AND BEAUTY still to come.

Sometimes, dive into unplanned things—
They are often the most productive!

V.