Day One: Already Loving this New Way
Only a day into my “experiment” I had a moment. My phone had truly been ruling my days. It was only now that I was seeing what a problem it was.
When I say that I had a moment – I mean a rare, actual, literal, moment of contentment. It had been a minute since I’d had one of those.
The kids and I left for a picnic at 11 and without even knowing it didn’t make it back until 3:00. Since I didn’t need my phone to take photos or check like updates, I didn’t bring it.
My boys and I were truly at ease. Leaving my phone at home allowed me to focus on playing an evil butterfly fighting against Spider-Man and his scary shark sidekick. Hearing my oldest child giggle at my flying evil butterfly made me so glad. It made me regretful that we didn’t always have this organic interaction. They felt loved and heard. They had their buckets filled and needs met.
This allowed me to sit several feet away from them as they played. Allowing me to breath, take it in, and really see them. And man are they cute when they’re not fighting.
This rare stillness allowed me a true meditative moment. I sat in the shade of a maple tree in the playground parking lot. I meditated the contentment I felt as the boys did their own form of meditation in the sandbox. Right there, without even planning it, I had created a forever memory – a mental photo op that I can turn back to at any moment.
Lessons Learned
It was a mere 4 minutes before my meditative moment was up. Interrupted by my youngest who demanded I run around the parking lot with him.
The me just a week ago would’ve told him “hold on, I’ll play after I post this shot of me doing pull-ups on the monkey bars” or “hold on, only if you stand still and smile for the camera…no, not good enough…smile again.”
Four minutes was enough to confirm that I’m now heading in the right direction.
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