Unplugged Weekend Fuels Soul
Sometimes we have to make significant choices. I believe my clients would rather deal with a woman with a soul than a machine tethered to technology. Which is why I chose (consciously, many times over the past weekend) to stay unplugged from the grid.
On Friday afternoon, we packed the dog in the car and drove the short, 70 miles it takes to get to the Oregon coast, where friends had invited us to stay for the weekend.
I had packed my laptop (to write the second in a series of “how-to” digital marketing papers I’m working on) and a manuscript on mobile marketing (for which I’m providing a pre-release quote) - both with good intentions to finish them.
We arrived at sunset, and - martinis and champagne in hand - we toasted weekend ahead outside and (because it was chilly) inside the house, enjoying an unobstructed view of the big red sun slipping into the water for the evening.
It was a great start to a delightful weekend of ignoring car, computer and iPhone. Here’s what we did instead:
- Walked to coffee (six times in two days)
- Walked to lunch and looked at places for sale
- Let the dogs romp along the beach (exhausted Joey was a trouper on those three-inch legs)
- Played cribbage again for the first time in 30 years (won one game, lost one…)
- Bought lottery tickets (people from small towns win more often than those who buy in big towns)
- Watched a sea eagle hunt for dinner over the dunes
- Contemplated the randomness of life, observing flowers change while walking by the place where a plane crashed into a home in August (that happened to be right along our walk)
I can read the manuscript in the evenings, and write my paper between meetings this week.
My choice to unplug means I will always have the memories we generated at the coast this weekend. Some delightful, some contemplative, all fuel for my soul.
Are you fueled up, or did your weekend away allow your mind and body to let you know how depleting it is to continually engage the frenetic and demented online world?
Actually, I find it quite energizing most of the time, which is why I think I work so much. But once in awhile, I think nature (literally) calls me back “home” to a state of rest and contemplation.
Thanks again for popping by, Craig!
Well, I am VERY glad you stayed unplugged this weekend. I am a big proponent of living life fully and relaxing.
And, when you do get to it I am so honored that you’re reading my mobile marketing book to give me a testimonial. I hope you like it. (Unless you have another mobile marketing manuscript to read and I’m assuming I’m the only one. LOL)
It sounds amazing, and I should do it more often. I’m really good at unplugging during vacations where I lounge on the beach and consume fiction for a week, but I am miserable at unplugging for a day or two over the weekend. I should definitely make more of an effort to unplug.
Kim, indeed it’s your book that’s in my bag, and I really am looking forward to reading it and learning from it… It drew me, but I resisted!
Dawn, I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t had a week off in three years, so I have learned how to make the most of a weekend away! (When you love your work, it’s not as hard as it sounds to take small breaks…) So good luck unplugging for a day or two… it’s really quite refreshing!