Many unwrapped gifts are still under the tree, waiting their turns for attention. We sit close on the couch, in the first morning light and eat my sister’s banana bread while making yum sounds. We sit together and even if we don’t talk for a long time, we’re here. With the kiddos on break, we are lazing around, finally, after all the holiday running. Piles of Legos are like minefields across two rooms. I look around at the Christmas decorations and consider putting them away, but then I don’t. We like having strings of lights inside the house. We have had all the winter germs inside our bodies. Strep and Influenza, infections, and plain old nasty colds. Please let us be done. That’s a lofty goal, to be done, but please. We are coughing and coughing, sometimes in unison, shaking up the quiet house. In the mornings, I look at Facebook for a […]
If powering down means a detachment from technology, the Internet, social media…. what would that look like for you? Does it make your skin crawl and a shiver run up your spine? Do you start itching all over? Do you get the shakes? Kidding, of course, but seriously friends, we’re addicted whether we think so or not. When something becomes such an ordinary part of every day, so habitual and second nature, *cough*facebook*cough*twitter*cough*facebook*cough*pinterest… it’s most likely taking up a whole lot of our time. And we’re all so busy and I thought about this a lot when I always caught myself saying that I don’t have time to write or clean or get anything done ever (I like to dramatize). Many moons ago I was reading an article by Anne Lamott that reminded writers that we have time to write, “if we get off Twitter.” Then my insides flip flopped because even […]
Happy New Year! Life has been like a whisper lately. A slow whisper, which is sort of funny to imagine; whispering slowly. huuuuusssshhhhhhh…. But really, I can’t think of any other way to describe it. I feel like I’ve been walking on my tip toes, trying to be quiet, slowly. Floating a little, maybe. Watchful. Aware. Careful. It’s good. (Even though my toes would hurt if I were actually doing this, which I’m not. It’s just a metaphor. Sort of.) The holidays bring this hush, even in the midst of all the parties and plates of cookies and opening and giving and receiving and and and… In the moments when we are home, which is as much as possible in the midst of it all, we’re wrapped up in blankets and movies and each other. That’s not to say we aren’t arguing and fussing and sighing like normal humans, but there’s so much […]
Do you wonder sometimes if the next generations are going to live in the movie Wall-E? Everyone will just float around in their isolated little transporters sipping Big Gulps and staring at screens? And everyone will be unhealthy from never standing up or going outside to walk around and we’ll just make beeping sounds to communicate, but only when we have to and we’ll open everything everywhere by having a little thingy read our fingerprints. People won’t even procreate anymore, but the human race will only continue because babies will be made in labs and then they’ll be raised by robots cause we’ll be too busy with our screens… okay no really. I really really have to believe it won’t be that bad, but if I’m being totally honest, I get sad when I think about the future and community and connection. I wrote about this at Owning Pink and you can go […]
Monday~September 21st, 2009 I don’t walk around announcing the fact that Miles (4) and Asher (2) don’t watch TV, but if the subject comes up, I answer honestly. Even so, one doctor rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah right, Mom. He’s an American child, I know he watches television.” I retorted with a high-pitched, “I unplugged them!” (Because that’s a perfectly normal thing to say.) He still didn’t believe me. Many of you know that we chose to “unplug” last spring. (We’ll see how it goes in the depths of a frigid Minnesota winter, but for now we’re sticking to it.) You may also remember that the catalyst for this change was due to my inability to achieve the ever-elusive moderation I was striving for. Some mothers can do just that…moderate screen time. I am not one of them. So when I had a very helpful email conversation with my friend Debbie of […]
