Before I set out, I did set some life goals. Mostly those goals were stepping stones to a broader vision I have for my life: freedom.
Financial freedom, of course. But also freedom to come and go as I please. Freedom to start and end my day when I please. Freedom to live and breathe wherever I please. Freedom to just do as I please.
Isn’t freedom what everyone truly desires?
With my vision in place, I set out to create an internet startup called Sharing Profiles so that I can “afford” a life where I come and go, start and end, live and breathe…and just do as I please.
What I didn’t realize at the outset was that this road to freedom also would lead to hot pants. Not because I wear hot pants or think I’m hot pants.
I’ve got hot pants because I’ve got a hot laptop.
It’s been running way too long for too many consecutive days. Every day for the past 21 months (except for a few days in May when I found myself signal-less in Mississippi), I’ve not only powered on, but I’ve stayed on for hours and hours and hours.
This last month, I think it’s started to catch up with me. I’ve been finding it difficult to write. I love to write, so it’s not for lack of passion. What I realize was that the the well of life was empty. It’s hard to tell a story when you don’t have any stories to recall. It was becoming difficult to focus, concentrate, make decisions, and get things done.
I was being so indecisive. There were too many options b/c I was on information overload.
I’ve been extremely busy working and achieving which is fine because I see this stage of my life as laying the foundation to my freedom house. But working and achieving and going, going, going leaves little time, if any, for simple living.
So, this weekend I decided to simply live. And I knew the only way to really do that was to totally unplug. No logging in. No facebook. No twitter. No blogs. (I did check my iphone a few times).
It was hard at first, but I survived.
I also got many more things off that long to-do list of mine. I put away my deck furniture. I cleaned out my closets. I organized my drawers, changed my sheets, grocery shopped, walked around a few lakes, called Comcast, cleaned out the garage and the shed, donated to Goodwill, paid bills, read a book, got my nails done, windexed my windows, went thru ALL my magazines, threw away all the stale ones, and cooked from scratch. I still haven’t vacuumed.
I also watched a fascinating PBS special called “Art & Copy: the social and cultural influence of advertising” and another fascinating show on penguins. Did you know that the momma penguin lays her egg, rolls it over to the daddy penguin to keep warm while she goes away for 4 months to find food, comes back with regurgitated food for the baby penguin, and resumes the parenting from the dad? And if she doesn't make it back in time, the daddy and baby die of starvation. You really can learn something new every day.
I truly had forgotten how great it feels to take a weekend off and simply live.
I plugged back in to write this post. And it feels right to have done so now that I’ve renewed my spirit, reconnected with nature, and enjoyed my home. I’ve also made a new promise: to unplug more often because I know it makes things better.
Unplug yourself. You, and your pants, will be glad you did.
