I did the unthinkable today – I left my phone at home.  It wasn’t purposeful – it was evidence of a lack of thinking (is that un-thinking?).  I realized that I had likely left it when I was about halfway to work and I had a mental flash of it still sitting on the kitchen table.  I had a bit of an immediate panic at the recognition that I was sans phone in my travels out and about in the big world, but not so much that I turned around and went home to get it.  Once at the university and parked, I was able to confirm that I had indeed left my phone at home.

Oh bother.  A whole day without my cell phone.  How would I survive the day? Well having arrived home nine hours later I can tell you that I am not only no worse for the wear, but surprisingly un-scarred by the experience.

I was reminded of something today – something I already knew but that I had let drift off to the peripheral – I don’t need to be on the grid all the time.  While it is true that I do want to be accessible in case the kids or Mike need me – absent a crisis of sorts – it is delightful to be somewhat unreachable.  Not that students, faculty, staff and family couldn’t find me – I certainly wasn’t hiding.  It was that I didn’t feel the obligation to facilitate being found by being attached to my phone.

I was off the grid today and it wasn’t the end of the world as I know it…indeed, it was a refreshing change.  I like the benefits of un-thinking.  I do believe I will be more purposeful in pursuing un-thinking in the future…as unthinkable as that may be. 😉

Day nine hundred and seventy-six of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C