I hope you have a wonderful holiday today with friends and family, eat lots of turkey (or whatever feast graces your table) and be sure to laugh and share stories!
Our guest post today is by Mary Biever author of Real Life in River City Blog is a corporate computer trainer, blogger, and speaker. She writes a lovely blog about her daily life in Evansville, IN.
I am thankful for…
A dead watch battery that reminded me of the value of unplugged, stopped time.
The 1st day of our family’s vacation in the Smokies last month, my watch battery died. In addition, our cabin was so remote we had neither Internet nor cell phone access. Richard, my husband, wanted our family to have an unplugged break.
Most of the time, I liked it. Except when our kids raced ahead of us on a trail and were out of contact for two hours when we had no phone access. Or when we took the mountain shortcut on the unimproved road that beat any theme park roller coaster. How I wanted my cell phone access! Everything ended well in both adventures, even with no bars on my phone.
When I couldn’t check my phone, I heard the wind rustling in the trees and the crunch of the leaves as we walked trails. We could savor the stars in the midnight sky from the hot tub on our cabin deck. Whether we picnicked by a rushing creek or cooked out at the cabin, for a few days, we were just the little family in the little house in the big woods.
I like stopping time. My babies are now teens in high school – 1 a junior and the other a freshman. In 3 years, both of my kids will be in college. Now I understand why grandparents are so indulgent with young grandchildren. They know how quickly those years pass. I can’t make back the younger years of their childhood when I got so busy meeting schedules that I sometimes left out downtime to enjoy each other. What I can do is savor the time we have right here, right now.
We’ll be home this Thanksgiving instead of in a mountain cabin. Nevertheless, I hope we can take off our watches, unplug ourselves, and savor time just being who we are. Just for today, I hope time will stand still so we can enjoy our dinner, hear the crunch of the leaves rustling in our own backyard, and maybe play a board game.
Just to help me along, I suspect my husband or kids will kidnap my phone and my laptop and hold it hostage for the day! If they do, I wonder what ransom they will demand?
How will you stop time and seize the moment this Thanksgiving?
Thanks Mary for such a great post!!
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing this Thanksgiving! My family loved the fact that I left my computer packed away for the weekend...and that gave me the chance to enjoy time with the girls in the family making homemade ravioli! Such fun!
I hope you enjoyed your holiday too!