I left Indiana last week for the first time in…months?…and got on a plane. It was at the end of a long day, the middle of a busy week, and I was looking forward to the long flight and watching a movie on my phone.
Only to discover that the wi-fi on the plane was not working.
Which was fine. Sort of. But I had not packed appropriately. As in, I did not have activities. I was tired, I was cranky, and I wanted to zone out to a dumb movie. But my entertainment options were thus: a journal and a non-fiction book on identity that I’ve been slow-reading (the opposite of speed-reading) my way through since 2017. Not exactly zone-out, head-to-vacation materials.
But, not wanting to sit in silence and unable to sleep (see my previous posts on boredom and also how does anyone ever sleep on a plane, y’all are crazy) I decided to journal.
And I had so much to say! I may discover later that some of it is total gibberish (like when you’re drunk and you have this amazing idea and you write it down and then the next morning when you fall out of bed and pry open your eyes you see a sticky note with the word “noodles” scribbled on it) but it felt really, really great to get it out. It was just feelings and thoughts and nothing earth-shattering. But I stopped to notice it, and that’s what felt good.
Even though in past seasons of life I’ve made an effort to take plenty of space and downtime, that has not been the case lately. I had to be forced to slow down and take inventory in order for it to happen. And so, this is me, publicly committing to get back to that.
What about you? If all distractions and previously-made plans were suddenly taken away from you, what would you do with yourself? What does your soul need that you are (consciously or unconsciously) avoiding?
Leave a Reply