What Is Unplugging To You?
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Dear friends,
While packing up before holiday, it struck me how many micro-decisions we make.
Specifically, the decision of whether to maintain connections with work or fully leave it behind in exchange for something else.
What is that something else?
We have a sense of it.
An inkling we need it.
It’s something old in us, this yearning for something that will not be named.
And there we are, packing our bags, when our small decisions suddenly feel heavy.
"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours."
William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us.
Can we really leave it behind?
It’s not about the items we pack.
It’s about the tension between what we leave behind and what we take with us.
For me, all this was taking place an hour before I was meant to leave.
Funny, how our little mania’s become an allegory for our whole lives.
Each day, we navigate this strange relationship between our past and future…all while working out this baffling business of being present.
And there I am, staring at my half-packed bag, items scattered everywhere, stampeding from one side of the flat to the other, losing precious time and making no progress.
Ah, life!
I’m determined not to end up where I’ve been before — staying plugged in.
How easy it is to stay bound to our illusions!
There’s no way this earth can carry on rotating if I turn off the computer for 10 days!
Surely, all the hard-earned momentum of my life will grind to a terrible halt if I dare leave it!
We can be pretty unforgiving of ourselves.
And the first thing we forget is that by making space, stuff happens anyway.
To invite something new in, we cannot be full of what was with us before.
It takes letting go.
And it takes a leap of faith.
As Maya Angelou put it:
"Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us."
What glorious words; each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will no withdraw from us.
We yearn to make a space but find ourselves filling it before we’ve even left the house.
Somehow, it’s become easier for us to stay congested.
By now, my packing is going desperately badly, and noticing my own frenzy stop and ask myself a simple question:
What is unplugging to you?
I decided to pull this idea out of the abstract and make it concrete.
Surely that would help get the dam bag packed!
To unplug, I would:
Set email to "out of office" and not check it at all.
Wake up naturally, without an alarm.
Automate social media posts, with no scrolling on holiday.
Take up yoga (I’m now 9 mornings in, even with 9 hangovers!)
Let go of my usual weekly rituals and disciplines.
Bring my little Fuji camera, photos just for fun—if at all.
The joy of a holiday is to let things go that are normal to you — and see what happens in the space they leave.
I usually find that hard to start with.
And for many slipping into the vibe of holiday takes a few days adjusting.
I enjoy living a ritualised life; with several daily practices such as writing.
My resistance before holiday is that habits are hard to build and easy to break.
Habits flow when you’re in the groove, but it’s hard to pick them up after you let go.
Damn, where did my motivation go?
E.B. White wrote:
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
There is a tension between what we are going to do and how we are going to be.
The problem nowadays is barriers are blurred.
You set your out-of-office reply, only to get a WhatsApp message about project planning. You delete the email app from your phone but still find work messages on Instagram.
These may be small things.
But the ways we ringfence our capacity to be determine how we rest, recover and renew.
Too often, these things we try to fit into our daily lives.
But as Maya Angelou said: each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.
Bag packed!
Hmm, lighter than usual…
A reflection of my determination to do as little as possible—just as one of my favourite fictional characters decided:
To loaf.
On that note, if you’re looking for a wonderful book, do check out The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham!
As for me, this holiday is coming at the right time.
What is that something else I caught myself thinking over?
It’s not just space.
It’s the decision to create it.
When we return, the world will determine how things will be.
Continuing to move forward, welcoming love in new ways, and giving back where our energy was exhausted.
Perhaps just in forms other than we expected.
What is unplugging to you?
With love and Adieu!
Jim
Nice Jamie!👍🏼 So nice!👍🏼😘