Rip off the wallpaper
Oh, hi friends!
After saying it was time to create more, and exchanging emails with my friend Stacey Raymond, yesterday morning I suddenly thought: Bye-bye, social media. (For five whole days.)
Many people have done digital detoxes (self included), but the main point behind this one is to simply break the pattern.
My pattern was:
I don’t want to write this story…so I’ll open Twitter.
I’m tired of sitting at my desk…so I’ll lie on the bed for “just a second” and scroll Instagram.
I gotta eat lunch, so I’ll tap-tap-tap while I shove forkfuls of Cobb salad in my mouth.
Gosh, it’s such a familiar and dull pattern. Like staring at the same wallpaper for three hours a day.
Because while I appreciate the ability to be in touch with friends, connect with people for work, and stay informed, I realized there are many friends I actually want to talk to, not scroll past.
I’m much better at all-or-nothing challenges, so that’s the deal — none of that stuff ’til Friday, and then, who knows.
And then yesterday I actually read an Alice Munro short story during lunch, and my Monday felt hours longer (in a good way!).
Which of your patterns could use some new wallpaper?
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Go read the rest of Ithaka by C. P. Cavafy
Here’s Mandy Gonzalez singing “Breathe” from In the Heights. This one goes out to Aegean Chan Burnett, Mark Burnett, and Sofia Lafont Burnett!
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara