I very recently got back from vacation, a wonderful vacation that enabled me to check an item off my bucket list. There were many things about it that was amazing, just being able to be away for a whole week and spending the time with my husband, daughter and parents to name a couple. But the most important part of the vacation for me was that I was completely unplugged.
We went on an Alaskan cruise and since I was too cheap to
pay for international cell and data service for a week, it forced me to turn off
the cell phone and tablet, back away from Facebook, emails and texting and
essentially be unreachable for a week. It has probably been 15 years or more
since I have been on a vacation like this. It really felt like going “old
school” to pardon the phrase. And it was a blessing.
The blessing came from not being bombarded by words. I know
that may seem strange coming from a blogger and writer, but I had become so
weary of words coming at me from every side. I had become so weary of words
that I had found by the first part of July that I could not even put together a
decent short blog. So I took a break. But my breakthrough did not happen until
I essentially turned off the world by turning off my cell phone.
Even more importantly unplugging from so many words
bombarding me in a day actually helped me find my words again. I found myself relishing in the moments found
on my own, sitting on our balcony, writing page upon page in my journal. The
contemplative writer and poet that had been silent for oh, so long burst forth
again.
I began to experience the world in a way that I had almost
forgotten how to do. I actually saw with eyes and heart as my daughter’s eyes
got as big as saucers when she saw the cruise ship for the first time and
experienced just how enormous it was. I felt my own inner child become
practically giddy as I walked on the ship and realized my dream of cruising to Alaska;
the state of my father’s birth and part of my own family history was coming to
be. And I was getting to share it with
my family. I remembered how to play and dance as C dragged me down with her to
where the line dancing was and I found it impossible to stand to the side and
just watch her – so I danced! I remembered how to laugh at myself as I spent
the week constantly turned around and getting lost on ship. I joked that my internal GPS must have also
gotten turned off when I turned off the phone.
This trip taught me to wonder and marvel once again. Half way into the cruise, I got up very early
in the morning, before 6 am. Long before my husband and child were up and met
my Mom and Dad on deck. The ship was sailing into Endicott Arm, an amazing
place of untouched creation. In fact,
cruise ships don’t normally get to go into Endicott Arm, but because our planed
route was too dangerous as the glacier was calving (producing icebergs) we received
the blessing of taking somewhat the unbeaten path. I looked out on the pure,
untouched majesty of the wilderness and my breath was taken away. I whispered
to my dad, “this is amazing.”
It was my dad’s reflection to me of his reaction as he
watched me take my first look at the wilderness in front of me that gave me
pause for thought. He told me he was surprised
by my response until he remembered that I had never seen anything like this
before in my life. And in that moment I realized I was seeing and experiencing
that moment as my daughter experiences much of her world – with awe and wonder
and excitement of all things new and first experiences. In that moment I
connected with my daughter's wonder at a wholly different level. And that
connection came from my father as he shared his parental reaction with me.
And then I wondered when was the last time I had a completely
new experience? Or how much have I missed lately because I have been so busy
trying to capture a moment on camera, or because I “need” to respond to that
one e-mail or text, or am going to check just one thing on Facebook and 10
minutes later…. How many opportunities have I missed to wonder and marvel at
either for the first time or again?
I am hoping that the experience of last week is a bit of a
reset for me. I hope that I can continue to be less tethered to my phone, to
learn to unplug for a little bit each day. I hope to not fall into old habits
of constantly being connected and instead to practice wonder, and play, and face-to-face
conversation about everything and nothing. I hope to practice a bit of Sabbath
every day.
I shall leave you with this as the Benediction and blessing
to send you on your way:
Sail away from worry and care
Leave the world behind for a while.
Feel the breeze lift your burdens away,
The crisp salt air cleansing the soul,
Leaving room for remembering how….
To
play
To
dance
To
laugh
To
wonder
To
just be
The choice is yours
To be fully present to the restoration that
Can only come in completely
Stepping away into Sabbath time.
