This week my daughter started a 2 week camp after school. I requested the last 2 hours of each day off as PTO for the two weeks, so when I bike her to the camp, I drop her off and then… I have nothing. I’m not expected to be at work. I’m not expected to be at home. I’m just downtown with a bike and 2 hours to myself.
There’s not a lot to do downtown; lots of storefronts are closed up because of covid. The only businesses that seem to be open are restaurants with their parklet or outdoor seating. And there are so many of them now! Everywhere I go there’s a road blocked off for outdoor dining! It looks lovely, though I’m personally not ready to take that step in the pandemic yet.
There’s also not a lot of places to just hang out even outside, unless you’re paying for food– lots of city benches are made to be hostile, or don’t exist. So I bike around. I bike leisurely: only 7 or 8 miles an hour, with frequent stops to play Ingress (Pokemon Go before Pokemon Go #hipster). Bikes are lovely machines- easy to maneuver to the sidewalk for a break.
Do you know what it’s like to be forced away from your laptop? To have no place to sit except my bicycle saddle? No one to listen to except music or a podcast? It’s downright dreamy.
And I didn’t know I needed this break. I needed it badly. I needed the sunlight and the wind and the movement of my body. I needed time when people didn’t need me. I suspect you also need that.
This weekend is General Conference and a lot of people use it to recharge. When I was a kid we only went to Sunday morning session at the stake building. I didn’t know people even watched Saturday session until I went to BYU. I assumed Saturday sessions were a courtesy to people in Australia and Japan so they could have a conference session on their Sunday! And the afternoon of Sunday was for the west coast and Alaska and Hawaii so they could have a “Sunday morning” session.
As the weekend goes it’s ok to skip Saturday sessions and Sunday afternoon, and heck even Sunday morning. It’ll be in the Ensign. They’ll have the talks up within days, maybe hours. Give yourself some time if you can. Go someplace where you can’t reach the Internet and no one needs anything from you. Move your body a little. Just for a couple of hours. You might need it.
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.
Not so long ago, it seems like viewing the Saturday evening session of General Conference was so crucial that protests were organized so that you could do so. Why wasn’t just reading the talks later in the Ensign good enough back then?
Because it wasn’t equally available to every one to stream. It is now and I can watch while streaming, or the next day, which is sooner than waiting over a month for the Ensign. I don’t know why this upsets you. Watching in real time doesn’t prove that it’s more important to you.
Thank you so much for this reminder! I needed it!!!!!!!
This is a good reminder. I’m trying to figure out how to unplug and I’m kind of struggling tbh.