In this media-drenched, multitasking, always-on age, many of us have forgotten how to unplug and immerse ourselves completely in the moment. We have forgotten how to slow down. Not surprisingly, this fast-forward culture is taking a toll on everything from our diet and health to our work and the environment.
Carl Honore
What a wonderful Father’s Day Weekend. A long planned weekend came together with some unexpected lessons. We took our inaugural trip with what will be our new home, the Grand Design Momentum 29G toy hauler. That story can be seen at www.advinlife.com. We left Central Oregon and returned to my home of two and a half decades, the North Coast of Oregon. Specifically we were at Ft. Stevens State Park.
Here was the surprise, our phones didn’t work. We could make phone calls but texting was unreliable and data was nonexistent. Nothing better could have happened. The trip was to reconnect with friends and to spend time with my sons. COVID has kept us largely apart for the last year. This weekend we were able to spend hours together and coworkers and friends stopped by to say hi as well. The beautiful thing was, after the first few hours (where in disbelief we were all checking our phones) no one was looking at their phones. No one was looking at social media, shopping, posting about the experience, Instead they were present in the moment.
Here is the thing, in our society, there are very few group discussions remaining. When two people are talking additional people check out and check their mobile devices. Our relationships are poorer because of it. We don’t get the richness of the non sequitur, the third, (even fourth) perspective or the heckle of true friends and family. We didn’t do anything but visit all weekend and the visit was richer as a result.
Get disconnected, get together with friends while you do it. Maybe set rules when you get together if you aren’t at a rural campground. Call people out on their incessant cell phone checking. Disconnect, so that you can reconnect. You won’t be disappointed.
The Embed Educator 
First of all, I’m glad to hear you guys were able to get out and celebrate fathers day while trying out the new home, thats so exciting! I also really love how doing that and losing service was able to force everyone to slow down. This has been a huge theme in my life recently that I’ve been trying to work on. I think it is often difficult for us to find the time to turn off the technology and truly be present with the world around us and those in it. John Mark Comer’s Book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, has been a huge inspiration to me in intentionally slowing down my days.
I feel like this year has been especially technology heavy and fast paced, as our whole world was redirected to the internet when we got put into lockdown and quarantine. From what I’ve heard, many offices are planning to continue remote work even after COVID is over. I’ve seen the same involvement of heavy technology in our classes as well. Everything seems to be shifting to the fast paced style of the online world. With all of these thoughts, I would love to spend some time figuring out how to intentionally slow down in my life, and with my classes in the future, despite the involvement of technology in our society. It is so important! I’m so glad you guys got some of that time this weekend.
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I’m with you. For 25 years, I was tethered to pagers and cell phones. When I retired in 2017 I stopped carrying two phones and became accustomed to the fact that no one needed me when I was off duty. Low and behold, someone from the school needed something from me Friday while we were driving to the coast. It made me irrationally angry. It took me two days to figure out why abs when I realized the perceived intrusion and the lack of correlation in my emotional response I was a bit embarrassed. Lots of learning this weekend.
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