Many of us live in a culture where being plugged in is the norm. We are in front of screens multiple hours a week, (if not a day). It is common and acceptable to be in constant communion with our smart phones (maybe lost in Apps, on the www, talking to Google or Siri., rather than actually communicating with a human). We live in an age of information and media overload.
If "Sitting is the New Smoking", then "Screens are the New Crack".
I want to embody my living and loving in tangible connection to life as often as possible. I want my body tuned and brain wired to resonate with Nature's rhythms, entrained to her intelligence. How can we integrate technology to better express genius and creativity in life giving ways? How do we swim gracefully while saturated in an ocean of cyber space?
A few months ago I watched an excellent documentary film, Screenagers. (Get it for your community and tell everyone you know to watch it) ) My self-reflection on the film and subsequent actions changed my family's life. I took a sobering look at my own screen use and what I was modeling for my daughter. Our screen time (this includes phones, my friends) had become excessive and had fuzzy boundaries.
I want my daughter to remember me as the mom that offered pure attention; that hugged her often, looked into her eyes and savored hands on living, (not as a person who was always texting, emailing, preoccupied and busy...working, multi-tasking, plugged in, on line, "with her" behind a screen). This has become an addiction of the digital age. We all know it's true. Just look around you.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the advances of technology, multimedia creativity and digital communication. Yet we must check ourselves on where useful becomes habitual, and where overusing smartphones starts dumbing down our direct connection to life.
Today, when my daughter came home from school, I still had a ton of work to do (all of it computer based). Additionally, like many of us, I receive a daily inundation of emails (even though I "unsubscribe" and delete whenever possible). Then there's tending to the steady stream of texts. I made a conscious choice to put down my phone, leave the laptop closed and walk away.
Instead of taking care of business "first", I took care of what matters most. We went outside and played. We delighted in breathing fresh air, throwing sticks for the dogs, weeding, watering the garden and making fairy houses together. We smelled roses and marveled at plums ripening from green to purple and baby apples (we affectionately call applets) growing in the trees. My sweet girl's cheeks turned rosy from the windy chill. A huge smile beamed on her sun kissed face...And on mine too. Happy. Grateful. Connected.
We may not always have the luxury to choose to play outside when there is work to be done. Though what I am pointing towards is a conscious choice in designing a more integrated life. Only you know where too much sitting and working is making you sick (and yes, heart sick counts). Only you know when you are addicted to your devices, distracting on social media, reaching for your digital fix, taking yet another selfie to post somewhere, getting high on the feel good chemistry of your texts. Beware the toxic mimics of relational technology. Being plugged in is not the same as being deeply connected to the force of life. "Likes" do not equal happiness and getting through your emails will not feed your soul. Or will it? You decide.
Me? I want the Real.
My brain longs for luminous sunshine and vast vistas.
My toes delight in digging into dark, rich soil.
My eyes love to drink in natural beauty.
My heart thrives in the company of my beloveds.
My body rejoices in the dance of life.
May we have the discipline in this wild, plugged in world to prioritize face to face intimacy with living, breathing beings and to live playfully in our bodies, not watching "life" through screens.
Join me. Let's go outside and make love to the sky.