Did You Miss Your Chance to Unplug, Too?
This past weekend, March 1-2, was National Day of Unplugging and because I was so busy trying to keep up with everything, I missed it. (Irony intended.)
I heard about this project when it first got started a couple of years ago and thought what a great idea. I totally support the founders ideas to reintroduce/remind the world of the ancient and timeless idea of taking a Sabbath from work — all work. To quote the founders from their web site:
Way back when, God said, “On the seventh day thou shalt rest.” The meaning behind it was simple: Take a break. Call a timeout. Find some balance. Recharge.
Somewhere along the line, however, this mantra for living faded from modern consciousness. The idea of unplugging every seventh day now feels tragically close to impossible. Who has time to take time off? We need eight days a week to get tasks accomplished, not six.
So, in an effort to slowly help us all get back on track, a group of workaholic creative and digital types created a single day for national unplugging. To call attention to the problem and to join in community to begin to address it.
Personally, I try very hard to totally disconnect on Shabbat (Friday sundown until Saturday sundown) every week. I wish I could say that my “observance” is perfect. Far from it. Some weeks are better than others, but I am definitely making progress.
Had I known, or rather, had I remembered, that it was National Day of Unplugging, I would have been a lot better about it this past week. And, I would have made sure to publicize it here on my blog and in my articles. My feeling is that there’s something very powerful about doing a practice such as this in community with others. We feel part of something a bit bigger than ourselves.
A cheer to those of you who took a break and a thanks for inviting the rest of us to do the same, even if we didn’t hear you over the noise. One thing’s for sure, you can bet that next year I’ll be shouting about this practice long before it happens. That will make sure that I don’t miss it again.
