Can you imagine going through the entire day without checking your phone?
Your email? Your facebook? Your instagram?
Can you imagine a question entering your mind and taking the time to really ponder the thought without immediately reaching out to Siri or Google?
Can you imagine an entire day of ignoring deadlines? Of not replying to texts? Of not picking up your phone once?
Can you imagine an entire day of staying in your usual environment, but actually being there? Of being present in every moment?
Of lying on the grass, looking at the clouds for an hour like we did when we were kids?
An entire day of laughing as the children cover themselves in mud. Jump in all the leaf piles. Catching beetles and lizards?
Can you imagine an entire day of reading stories to your children, picking flowers, and examining cicada skins?
For a while now, I've been walking in a fog of busy.
I like to think of it like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown - but what's been swirling around me is a storm of preoccupation, stress, and "to-do's."
I've been working so hard to try to give my children a good life that I didn't realize that what I've actually been doing is taking their good life away.
The seldom spend time - real, quality downtime with both parents any more. We've become sort of a tag-team operation, Jon and I. I multitask while half-heatedly entertaining them while he's at work, and after dinner, we slap hands as I pass the evening entertainment duties on to him so that I can work.
My heart is always there, but I'm ashamed to say - my head hasn't been for a while.
I haven't been able to imagine leaving my phone behind, or really logging out for fear of missing an email or customer for quite some time, but you know what?
I can imagine now.
I really can.
And it excites me.
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Your email? Your facebook? Your instagram?
Can you imagine a question entering your mind and taking the time to really ponder the thought without immediately reaching out to Siri or Google?
Can you imagine an entire day of ignoring deadlines? Of not replying to texts? Of not picking up your phone once?
Can you imagine an entire day of staying in your usual environment, but actually being there? Of being present in every moment?
Of lying on the grass, looking at the clouds for an hour like we did when we were kids?
An entire day of laughing as the children cover themselves in mud. Jump in all the leaf piles. Catching beetles and lizards?
Can you imagine an entire day of reading stories to your children, picking flowers, and examining cicada skins?
For a while now, I've been walking in a fog of busy.
I like to think of it like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown - but what's been swirling around me is a storm of preoccupation, stress, and "to-do's."
I've been working so hard to try to give my children a good life that I didn't realize that what I've actually been doing is taking their good life away.
The seldom spend time - real, quality downtime with both parents any more. We've become sort of a tag-team operation, Jon and I. I multitask while half-heatedly entertaining them while he's at work, and after dinner, we slap hands as I pass the evening entertainment duties on to him so that I can work.
My heart is always there, but I'm ashamed to say - my head hasn't been for a while.
I haven't been able to imagine leaving my phone behind, or really logging out for fear of missing an email or customer for quite some time, but you know what?
I can imagine now.
I really can.
And it excites me.
