Perceptions: Bed and Breakfast

Last weekend my wife and I returned to the bed and breakfast where we honeymooned 23 years ago. We loved it. In fact, when people ask me what my life passion is, I tell them it is to travel all over the world with Julie, living in bed and breakfasts, dedicated to a life of leisure.

But as I lay in the soft bed, dreaming of a lifetime of indulgence, a jagged truth tore a hole in my fantasy: a life devoted to my own comfort would be a miserable existence. I did everything I could to show the uninvited thought to the door, but was unable to make it leave.

Time off for refreshment is energizing but it has to be a break from some greater purpose, something that matters. Time away for indulgence's sake alone is like meringue with no pie, all fluff and not satisfying.

"Freely receive, freely give" is the recipe Jesus gave. A lifetime dedicated solely to receiving turns me into an engorged tick, or maybe Jabba the Hut. A lifetime dedicted solely to giving makes me whiny and irritable. I am a vessel, not a fountain.

Watching the morning light play on the perfectly maintained backyard of the bed and breakfast, I found myself strangely at peace with the idea of returning home to fight the weeds in mine.

Maury Robertson is a writer who lives in Yuba City. Contact him at josephmrobertson@hotmail.com.