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1. Writing things by hand. Letters to friends, lists for the store, goals for the week, notes for lovers, thank you cards and memos to coworkers. Digital communication is easy and convenient but ask anybody: there’s a huge difference between texting someone to say that you love them and hope they have a great day and writing it on a note and leaving it next to their bed. (I love getting hand written mail with complete words not text dialogue. I love to send them too. The saddest thing is that we don't even send Thank You notes anymore. It is a dying art).
2. Savoring time to do nothing. Taking a cue from pre-industrialized society and cultures that enjoy siestas and long, drawn-out, sit-down teas that serve no other purpose than to spend time enjoying the time you have. (I spent most of my day off on Monday just reading....a real book....you know one of those with pages. and believe me....it was heavenly.)
3. Thinking before responding. We’ve become too conditioned to require things immediately. Someone asks a question, and we have to respond that second. Such was not the case before instant messaging and comment threads. A sign of true intelligence and confidence, I think, is someone who takes time to consider the question at hand in a little more depth, and then offers a response. (I am surprised these days when people actually don't answer immediately but say...let me pray about that. I think we jump on an answer way too quickly and regret our response down the road.)
4. Cooking a nice meal just for the sake of doing so. It really trains you to defy your need for instant gratification and of course puts you in touch with something that’s very human and can be lovely if done right. (I don't cook during the week, my husband does....but every so often I feel the urge to get flour out and create something. It is very theraputic for me. I am reading Stones for Bread and it is making me want to bake like a wild woman.)
5. Getting really dressed up for no other reason than just wanting to. (I am not a fancy shmancy kind of girl....but sometimes I just want to get dressed up....it makes me happy to see my husband smile. He loves me in jeans and a tshirt...but seems to swell a bit with pride when I put on my black dress and pearls.)
6. Books. Actual hard copy books that you can scribble notes in and mark off sections of and smell ink through and hear the sound of turning pages and bending spines while you read. ( I own ebooks....I review books for companies and often choose the ebook to get it instantly. I prefer real books....the ones that smell and you can turn the pages in. I especially love old ones....they have the best smell. I am notorious for taking notes in the margins. My Bible is filled with notes, dates, thoughts. I love reading back and seeing what I thought or felt when I read a particular thing.)
7. Making phone calls to relatives for no other reason than to just say hi, and to ask how they’re doing. ( I love to get these. I love making them too. There is nothing better than hearing the sound of someone special's voice. Sometimes I call my daughter (when I know she is not going to answer the phone) just to hear her voice. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear her say, "Hi! This is Kathryn...."
8. Disconnecting from technology frequently enough that we won’t be anxious and feeling like we’re missing something when we try to do so for an extended period of time. (Tough call. I remember a few weeks ago at school when we were without technology for a day due to a line being cut. The kids were nuts. It was a weird kind of feeling knowing we were cut off from the outside world. )
9. Celebrating things with long, multiple course dinners that we hold for people as opposed to just drinking ourselves into an oblivion and being belligerent (that has it’s time and place, of course, but having thoughtful, celebratory dinners is a dying art). (I am not a drinker and love long fun dinners where people get together and celebrate, share, sing, talk. I love planning them, hosting them, being at them. Love it!)
10. Cleaning because it’s satisfying and doing things like painting walls or getting fresh flowers just because it’s therapeutic. (Cleaning is therapeutic. I don't like having to do it. I love doing it because I want to. My favorite therapeutic cleaning project is washing dishes by hand and looking out at the Towlers pasture. I feel so at peace with my hands up to my elbows in hot soapy water....cleaning! I especially love this when I am baking and need something quickly.)
11. Spending time with kids, and doing kid things with them. They just know what’s up. (Picking blackberries with my kids when they were small was one of my favorite things to do. Hiking Horseshoe Bend Military Park, going to the Smokeys, family game night...with Kat it would be watching Disney's Robin Hood - singing every song and knowing the movie backwards and forwards. I still love crafting with kids. It is fun!)
12. Answering things in a timely fashion, not putting off invitations and requests just because we can. (I have fallen short on this one lately. I put invitations on the fridge and mean to RSVP....and sometimes just forget. This is an area I definitely need to work on. As a catering person I know how important that RSVP can be.)
13. Making sure relationships are actually based on time spent with one another. People seem to be sustaining them through only digital means with increasing frequency and I can understand how that’s important if it’s temporarily long distance but in general, physically being with people is the only thing that will give you that sense of human connectedness. (This morning on The Message they were telling of a coffee shop that has a sign that says, "NO! We do not have Wi-Fi! Talk to each other and I thought what a thought. Lately it seems like every time I go to restaurant...few people are talking...most of the clients are on their phones. How sad. Frank and I love to talk to each other. We will be listening to music and singing....and turn the radio down to converse.)
14. Just sitting and listening to music. We’ve made music background noise in our everyday lives, but now and again we should just sit and enjoy it like people used to. (I love music. I listen to it....I sing it....I share it....it rocks my world...I dance to it....I sing in the rain to it. Music makes the world a pleasant place to be.)
15. Traveling by train, or if that’s not possible, at least exploring places that you pass everyday. Especially if you live in a big city, there are always little hidden gems around that you won’t believe you lived without seeing while they were a block away from you all along. (I have taken train trips, I prefer taking a car over a plane so I can see things I have never seen before. I love the history of places. I like to stop and smell the roses, I investigate things near where I am. Frank and I have a National Park passport that we got on our honeymoon. We both love historical places. I am a product of parents who believed you should know all you could about your state and where you live. My motto is..."I am not lost, I am exploring.")
16. Putting personal health and well-being first, as it often falls to the wayside in importance. This means, aside from the obvious, taking those personal days and using them to just relax. We’ve made such a quirky commodity out of enjoying napping and relaxing, as though doing so makes us boring and old. It doesn’t, it’s healthy. (I love to take a Sunday pastoral nap. I used to poke fun at my preachers about taking one.... but believe me....it is a treat to get one. Call me old.)
17. Planning something, especially with someone else, as simple as dinner or as grandiose as a long vacation next year. You always need something to look forward to. (Frank and I are spontaneous most of the time. If we have free time we find something exciting to do. We also plan a couple of trips a year....during Spring Break and the summer. We love talking about them, planning them, saving for them, and I love packing for them!)
18. Stopping to talk to people throughout the day. Connecting with them genuinely, as such interaction is really important but is becoming increasingly less common. Turning our phones off when out to dinner (who even turns them off anymore?) and learning to not spend all of our time documenting whatever we’re doing for social media. It often takes away from the experience itself.
(There are a bunch of us who get together in Trina's room each morning for coffee. We spend about 20 minutes sharing our lives with each other. We also eat lunch together and continue our morning thoughts. We share classroom antics, home antics, family antics. It is a wonderfully warm fuzzy way to start the day. I love conversation.)
As I read throiugh this I found that there were a lot of areas that I need to work on. I really do wish we could shut off the phones and enjoy each other....face to face. I think that would be a wonderful thing. What is your take on this?
2. Savoring time to do nothing. Taking a cue from pre-industrialized society and cultures that enjoy siestas and long, drawn-out, sit-down teas that serve no other purpose than to spend time enjoying the time you have. (I spent most of my day off on Monday just reading....a real book....you know one of those with pages. and believe me....it was heavenly.)
3. Thinking before responding. We’ve become too conditioned to require things immediately. Someone asks a question, and we have to respond that second. Such was not the case before instant messaging and comment threads. A sign of true intelligence and confidence, I think, is someone who takes time to consider the question at hand in a little more depth, and then offers a response. (I am surprised these days when people actually don't answer immediately but say...let me pray about that. I think we jump on an answer way too quickly and regret our response down the road.)
4. Cooking a nice meal just for the sake of doing so. It really trains you to defy your need for instant gratification and of course puts you in touch with something that’s very human and can be lovely if done right. (I don't cook during the week, my husband does....but every so often I feel the urge to get flour out and create something. It is very theraputic for me. I am reading Stones for Bread and it is making me want to bake like a wild woman.)
5. Getting really dressed up for no other reason than just wanting to. (I am not a fancy shmancy kind of girl....but sometimes I just want to get dressed up....it makes me happy to see my husband smile. He loves me in jeans and a tshirt...but seems to swell a bit with pride when I put on my black dress and pearls.)
6. Books. Actual hard copy books that you can scribble notes in and mark off sections of and smell ink through and hear the sound of turning pages and bending spines while you read. ( I own ebooks....I review books for companies and often choose the ebook to get it instantly. I prefer real books....the ones that smell and you can turn the pages in. I especially love old ones....they have the best smell. I am notorious for taking notes in the margins. My Bible is filled with notes, dates, thoughts. I love reading back and seeing what I thought or felt when I read a particular thing.)
7. Making phone calls to relatives for no other reason than to just say hi, and to ask how they’re doing. ( I love to get these. I love making them too. There is nothing better than hearing the sound of someone special's voice. Sometimes I call my daughter (when I know she is not going to answer the phone) just to hear her voice. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear her say, "Hi! This is Kathryn...."
8. Disconnecting from technology frequently enough that we won’t be anxious and feeling like we’re missing something when we try to do so for an extended period of time. (Tough call. I remember a few weeks ago at school when we were without technology for a day due to a line being cut. The kids were nuts. It was a weird kind of feeling knowing we were cut off from the outside world. )
9. Celebrating things with long, multiple course dinners that we hold for people as opposed to just drinking ourselves into an oblivion and being belligerent (that has it’s time and place, of course, but having thoughtful, celebratory dinners is a dying art). (I am not a drinker and love long fun dinners where people get together and celebrate, share, sing, talk. I love planning them, hosting them, being at them. Love it!)
10. Cleaning because it’s satisfying and doing things like painting walls or getting fresh flowers just because it’s therapeutic. (Cleaning is therapeutic. I don't like having to do it. I love doing it because I want to. My favorite therapeutic cleaning project is washing dishes by hand and looking out at the Towlers pasture. I feel so at peace with my hands up to my elbows in hot soapy water....cleaning! I especially love this when I am baking and need something quickly.)
11. Spending time with kids, and doing kid things with them. They just know what’s up. (Picking blackberries with my kids when they were small was one of my favorite things to do. Hiking Horseshoe Bend Military Park, going to the Smokeys, family game night...with Kat it would be watching Disney's Robin Hood - singing every song and knowing the movie backwards and forwards. I still love crafting with kids. It is fun!)
12. Answering things in a timely fashion, not putting off invitations and requests just because we can. (I have fallen short on this one lately. I put invitations on the fridge and mean to RSVP....and sometimes just forget. This is an area I definitely need to work on. As a catering person I know how important that RSVP can be.)
13. Making sure relationships are actually based on time spent with one another. People seem to be sustaining them through only digital means with increasing frequency and I can understand how that’s important if it’s temporarily long distance but in general, physically being with people is the only thing that will give you that sense of human connectedness. (This morning on The Message they were telling of a coffee shop that has a sign that says, "NO! We do not have Wi-Fi! Talk to each other and I thought what a thought. Lately it seems like every time I go to restaurant...few people are talking...most of the clients are on their phones. How sad. Frank and I love to talk to each other. We will be listening to music and singing....and turn the radio down to converse.)
14. Just sitting and listening to music. We’ve made music background noise in our everyday lives, but now and again we should just sit and enjoy it like people used to. (I love music. I listen to it....I sing it....I share it....it rocks my world...I dance to it....I sing in the rain to it. Music makes the world a pleasant place to be.)
15. Traveling by train, or if that’s not possible, at least exploring places that you pass everyday. Especially if you live in a big city, there are always little hidden gems around that you won’t believe you lived without seeing while they were a block away from you all along. (I have taken train trips, I prefer taking a car over a plane so I can see things I have never seen before. I love the history of places. I like to stop and smell the roses, I investigate things near where I am. Frank and I have a National Park passport that we got on our honeymoon. We both love historical places. I am a product of parents who believed you should know all you could about your state and where you live. My motto is..."I am not lost, I am exploring.")
16. Putting personal health and well-being first, as it often falls to the wayside in importance. This means, aside from the obvious, taking those personal days and using them to just relax. We’ve made such a quirky commodity out of enjoying napping and relaxing, as though doing so makes us boring and old. It doesn’t, it’s healthy. (I love to take a Sunday pastoral nap. I used to poke fun at my preachers about taking one.... but believe me....it is a treat to get one. Call me old.)
17. Planning something, especially with someone else, as simple as dinner or as grandiose as a long vacation next year. You always need something to look forward to. (Frank and I are spontaneous most of the time. If we have free time we find something exciting to do. We also plan a couple of trips a year....during Spring Break and the summer. We love talking about them, planning them, saving for them, and I love packing for them!)
18. Stopping to talk to people throughout the day. Connecting with them genuinely, as such interaction is really important but is becoming increasingly less common. Turning our phones off when out to dinner (who even turns them off anymore?) and learning to not spend all of our time documenting whatever we’re doing for social media. It often takes away from the experience itself.
(There are a bunch of us who get together in Trina's room each morning for coffee. We spend about 20 minutes sharing our lives with each other. We also eat lunch together and continue our morning thoughts. We share classroom antics, home antics, family antics. It is a wonderfully warm fuzzy way to start the day. I love conversation.)As I read throiugh this I found that there were a lot of areas that I need to work on. I really do wish we could shut off the phones and enjoy each other....face to face. I think that would be a wonderful thing. What is your take on this?
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