12 frogs

My vacation ends tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be back at work, sifting through the hundreds of emails that arrived when I was away and ignoring them.

I also didn’t keep up with twitter, or facebook, or my feed reader. For the first week, I was a real luddite: no computer, no phone, and it as it turned out even no television. Unplugging felt good.

I read a couple of good books, went for long walks, took lots of photographs, took naps. Spent hours beachcombing and staring out into space. I got a massage. I ate great food (and wonderful candy, and drank possibly the best ever iced coffee). I pretty much didn’t do anything I didn’t feel like doing for two weeks.

As I prepare to deal with tomorrow — the emails, the meetings, the flow of updates — I want to remember this relaxed, rested feeling and how it isn’t something I can get only two weeks a year.

I’m going to try to not give in to a sense of hurry. I can be busy, but can opt out of needless anxiety. I’m going to resist constantly feeling behind and the need to catch up. I unsubscribed from everything in my feed reader; I’ll build it back up as I see things I like, and as I remember to go back and resubscribe to the things I actually miss.

Going forward, I’m going to try unplugging every Saturday. I’m always thinking I want more time to read, more time to spend on my photography, more time to devote to not-quite-yet formed project ideas, and choosing to spend one day a week offline seems like a good way to find that time.