Holidays And Hotels

What is it with hotel shower curtains?

I’ll admit I haven’t stayed in thousands of hotels, but it seems like almost all of the ones I have stayed in have had really crappy shower curtains. You know the ones that are a little bit porous and never quite wide enough. Even though you are super careful to make sure the curtain is inside the bath, you still end up with more water on the floor than on your body!

It can’t be a money thing surely? I mean most of these hotels have fancy linen and flat screen TVs in the room. A decent shower curtain costs a fraction of these other luxuries. Surely they could spare an extra bob or two? Or maybe go all out and put in a glass door. Or is glass to risky for the general public?

Anyway, I digress…

For the past week my wife and I have been staying at a gorgeous hotel called the Beacon Island in Plettenberg Bay. As you can see in the photo, the hotel was built on probably one of the most exquisite locations in the whole country. And (other than the shower curtain fiasco) it has been such a wonderful stay.

I heard someone say that God loves to “create space for life” and that we too are called to “create space” in our own lives, and in the lives of others.

So often our day-to-day existence becomes just that – simply existing. We give our time to and fill up our plates with so many things that seem to steal life, not create it. And so this holiday Jess and I have tried to be really intentional about doing just that.

Creating space.

For our marriage. For our friendships. For our health. For our minds and thoughts.

We’ve ordered room service, lazed around the pool, exercised, slept, had deep conversations, spent quality time with old friends, and generally just switched off and relaxed.

Now of course all this is easy when you’re on holiday. But it’s got me asking questions…

How can I “create space for life” in my everyday world? What things do I need to let go of? What things drain me? What fills me up? What do I need to be more disciplined about?

And of course, what is wrong with this stupid shower curtain?!