I did it.
Not only did I not bring my computer, but I snuck a small lightweight jacket in that tiny bag and I walked on hands free. Emancipated.
One of the people I am staying with chose to do a "phone fast" for the week we are here … she felt like her phone was weighing her down. I gave her a 'high-five' for it.
Sometimes, when things are weighing you down, dropping some weight – in whatever form that takes is liberating.
I am traveling again, perhaps not as Spartanly as the previous trip. Yet, I did make the decision to leave my computer at home.
What?
Gasp, you say?
Yes, it's true. This may be the worst decision of my life (just kidding) but I am leaving my beloved Mac home.
As I was thinking through my packing, I have this huge desire to be completely hands free. I have a layover in one city and a three hour wait before I can join up with friends I am meeting at my destination. Normally, I would want my computer to internectify … but I just don't want to have to carry the thing. It's not that its all that heavy – a mere 4.5 pounds if remember the specs correctly.
But there is a lot on my mind these days, and it feels like I am already carrying too much on the inside; hence the desire to carry little, if anything on the outside.
I have a 8" x 10" bag/purse/pouch/overtheshoulderthingy … it will hold a book, a journal, my phone, a pen, ear plugs, headphones and my ubiquitous Luna bars. Perhaps some gum. And three quarters. For no reason other than it just seems like a good thing to bring.
If I could, I would bring NOTHING.
But, alas, I am not that brave.
Don't say you're going to show up and then you choose not to.
I'm not talking about forgetting, or something major got in the way … I'm talking about not valuing the other person's time or effort or energy as much as your own.
The person you are ultimately disrespecting is yourself.
But it's the other person who feels it.
It's a bit of a bridge-burner.
Recently I went to a screening of two short films created by someone I knew twenty years ago and hadn't seen since then.
It was so intriguing to watch something that someone had created … to see his name come up in the credits. It was interesting to hear from him personally how each of the stories had come about.
I asked him how he had come to find himself making short films. He is a portrait painter by trade, not a videographer.
He said, "I always wanted to make a film. One day that sentence came out of my mouth when I was with a friend; she immediately got on her phone, called someone she knew, who then told me to be in his office in two hours. It was crazy, but I went. The next thing I knew, I was working on this film and teaching myself how to use editing programs on my computer."
This is my kind of guy.
Desire + Opportunity + Action / Risk = Art.
I have two goats – Sophie is the mom and Lily is the daughter.
Lily goes off and explores by herself, even though she is the more frail of the two. Sophie watches and hollers at her if she gets out of sight.
Sophie watches everyone …
and she gets distressed when the other animals – even those not her own species – are out of view.
Everyone needs a traveling buddy – more through life than through actual travels. You need someone to bounce ideas off of and even to keep their finger on your pulse
– for them to say, "How are you really?"
The cool thing is that you don't have to have the same individual be that buddy through your lifespan. Buddies can change over time … you just need to at any given point, have a person be your person.
So, while spouses can count, they are not a requisite to having someone be FOR YOU.
More important than finding this person – is being this person for someone else.
Because we all need someone to keep tabs on us sometimes.
(Lily-goat)