Lesson 190. Put the phone down.

Sleep most often finds me after several rounds of racing penguin at around 2am.

Sleep most often leaves me at the sound of a message from somebody who wants something at around anytime that suits them. At this point, happiness does not ensue but rather a groan and furrowed brows over puffy eyes that have not been closed for nearly long enough. 

My phone is my point of distraction 'til the early hours and is my wake up call whenever it pleases. It goes off mid-conversation and more often than not takes the focus off whoever I'm actually with to someone in cyber space. 

It's not all bad. I'm the first to admit that my phone has captured moments and memories and I love it for the way it so briskly connects me to other human beings. But when I face the truth about my stress levels and sleep cycles, I find that my phone is the most negative influence about. I think it's time we put some boundaries around these babies. 

I've purchased myself an alarm clock, remember those? It is small and pink and rather revolutionary. It serves a single purpose and delightfully does so. My phone will no longer join Snoosan and I in the turret, but will remain on the floor, inactive as I slumber. I figure this is a good starting point. 

It's time to turn my phone to complete silence when spending time with someone. Full focus on the subject and not on cyber space. Maybe our generation struggles so much with dissatisfaction in relationships and in life in general because we spend so much time in an alternate reality. Instead we check emails in hope of one that might change our world, we respond to a message from someone else instead of answering the question of whoever is before us, and we invest in shallow social shenanigans instead of meaningful personal contact. 

I challenge you to set yourself some guidelines. To limit yourself to the cyber world and to engage with the real one; the hugs and kisses are literal and sarcasm is only sometimes misconstrued. It's beautiful out here, join me?

I get that this isn't the greatest revelation I've ever had, but it's practical and I'm pretty sure if you give it a shot, you'll be glad you did. Put the phone down. 

Lesson 189. Start with something small.

October 15, where did you come from? 

Sorry for several months of silence. There isn't an excuse of the tangible sort so conjure something intriguing up and tell it to yourself in your favourite accent.

I started by staring at my screen and realising that I have no idea how I used to unpack my life in a matter of sentences. I then remembered that I used to begin by looking at a detail of a day, kind of like a shoelace or a bus stop.

But today’s restart of silver linings is about the small things we see in one another. Why? Because I notice them all too often and leave them unsaid when I know that they are too special to let slip by. We breathe by baby steps, we move in moments, we need to notice them and know them for what they are. Here's to the bits and pieces that make up you and I. Here’s to my right eye that scrunches up more than my left when I smile, to the silent laugh that you do when something is too hilarious to handle. Know that perfection is fiction and the pieces that make you are precious truths.

Find something beautiful in someone and say it out loud. Start with something small.