It's been a month.
Maybe it's been a short month - but it's a month nonetheless. Twenty-eight days doth a month make, especially if it's February - and what a February it was.
An unexpected family illness has taken me away from my home for a few days a week all of February.
It's not far away - an hour and half - but it's far enough to remove me from simple conveniences like cell phone service and high speed internet.
These are things I didn't even know existed when most of my kids were born. Nonetheless, somehow, now they have become important to the way I live my life.
The internet is instrumental to the work I do. As a freelancer I use it for research, for writing copy and for turning in assignments, preferably before they are due.
I use my cellphone for my work, too - to do interviews and to communicate with editors when even e-mail isn't fast enough.
Daily I use my cellphone to communicate with my children. Especially the two that are in college. And the other one, who still needs rides to and from practices with times that are ever changing.
But with this new life twist that has taken me away from reliable cell phone service (except for this one place, a sweet spot, standing right up against the window pane in a spare bedroom), I have begun to do more of the dreading texting. (For someone who types every single day for most of the day I am surprisingly inept on a cell phone keyboard). I find it tedious and exhausting - but it's getting a little easier.
The internet connection I have been using is dial up. Ergo if I use the internet I make it somewhat quick because the internet also ties up the reliable telephone line. Something I'd completely forgot about for a few days.
But as the weeks have continued I have come to realize something.
I miss time.
Downtime, free time, extra time.
Maybe everything doesn't have to be an immediate rush job. When the two minutes or so it seems to take to send an e-mail used to be excruciating, now I sit back in the chair and relax. Spin a little, hum, and then celebrate the little victory when the screen signifies a successful delivery.
When I used to talk endlessly on my cellphone (probably about nothing special) a text or two a day as an exchange with my kids serves the purpose just as well. I know everyone is fine - which is really all that matters.
And I am reading!! Alot. Which I do anyway but now it seems a little more rewarding.
Without endlessly surfing on the internet as a distraction, the pages of the books I've wanted to get to are turning twice as fast.
Leaning against the arm of the sofa visiting with my parents is entertainment enough and sometimes, my cellphone isn't even in the same room I am. Which is an interesting discovery because previously I returned home multiple times a week to retrieve it because spending a couple of hours without it was becoming unheard of.
So if you call me these days chances are the phone doesn't register such a thing and I'm into a good chapter of a book. And if you e-mail me and it takes a little longer for me to respond it's because I'm not able to check my messages every hour on the hour like before. And maybe I'm listening to a good story from my parents or their friends and neighbors who stop by.
I will reply. Just give me time.
And take a little for yourself.
