Forgive the brevity of this post, I’ve been unplugged. In fact this post is a day late due to the fact that I’ve been offline and quite simply forgot. But sitting up in bed reading tonight, for some reason I looked for today’s date and a penny dropped. So, just for an hour or so I’m plugging back in.
It has taken – let’s be honest it’s still taking – a considerable amount of self-discipline to unplug. And not just from technology. It’s taking discipline to temporarily disconnect from the never-ending, bottomless, list of should-dos.
Last Wednesday, after the flurry of Christmas entertaining was out of the way, I sat on the sunny verandah in my pjs with half a pomegranate for breakfast. Instead of whipping it into a bowl and consuming it quickly while focussing my attention on the day ahead, I chose to focus on the very simple joy of slowly eating a beautiful piece of fruit seed by seed. However as I peeled back the pith to reveal each jewel-like pip in turn, I found myself having to quell the disapproving and ever so slightly anxious voice of my inner critic which said “Seriously? You think you can do this? You know there is filing to be filed, notes to be noted, blog posts to posted!”
Listening, I paused, popped a deliciously tart pomegranate pip into my mouth and replied ‘Thank you, I’m truly grateful for your presence and concern, but actually I’m on holiday. And I think you should be to.” To which my inner-critic responded with a noise sounding a lot like ‘Harrumph’. But she must have listened because she’s been very quiet these past few days…
The following day, I found myself sitting in another sunny spot, this time for lunch with with friends and pashmak. Of Polish descent, the lovely Stefania had made a glorious Polish dessert (basically a strawberry shortcake) and served each piece with flourish of Persian spun-sugar, otherwise known as pashmak. It was delicious and ever-so-slightly magical.
Perhaps my inner-critic exists in a parallel dimension. I imagine sometimes that she also has a favourite wide-brimmed green hat and a passion for connecting the dots. Right now, I hope she is also enjoying some time unplugged from me. And that she too is sitting in a series of sunny spots slowly savouring pomegranate and pashmak.
Unplugged?… I’d love to hear of your experience!
