Time to take a break and go off the grid for awhile. It's time to pause, think, reassess, and perhaps recommit to my goals. Off the grid means to me that I will spend less time on social media and more time in face to face interactions. Less time reading about others lives and more time interacting with people.
October is my favorite month. The time when color explodes all around; the month I was born, and the month Roger and I married. So this October I am going off the grid; not to become less involved with others, but to engage in a deeper, more meaningful conversation about life.
October heralds November when the brilliant colors fade as we begin the descent into winter's friendship. Through this blog I can share my thoughts with anyone who will read it. Through Facebook, Twitter, and other such sites I am in touch with others thoughts, ideas, and creativity, and others can share this with me. But it is time for more.....
Perhaps my venturing into "Through The Looking Glass And Down The Rabbit Hole" (post on 9/21) brought up the awareness of what I have been through and the need to stop, look, and assimilate my life's experience. Maybe celebrating my 68th birthday in October adds to the my needing to take a sabbatical. Whatever the reason it feels to be the correct time to do so.
To stop and watch the backyard begin to fill with leaves; to absorb the dying sun's warmth; to smell the advent of autumn; to hear the finale sounds of summer. It is a good time to be off the grid and into life. I have often paused in autumn to stop and listen. In past years this has been for a day, a long weekend, or a vacation to slow down. I use to measure time in seconds, minutes, hours, and days; I now measure it by the seasons, the sun's position as it travels across the sky, and how I respond to each season. The Rumi tree in my backyard marks the passage of time. From the newly budding branches, to the full green leaves, to the majesty of brilliant colors, and to the stark beauty of bare branches on a cold day, time continues on in its unending cycle.
Going off the grid allows time to be a gentler, kinder presence in life. I follow a blog where the writer has been off the grid for over 260 days as he learns the music of nature. He is off the grid as he records images and sounds that teach him this exquisite language. It takes courage to go off and to stay off the grid for so long; only posting every few days that he is still off the grid exploring this music and the number of days he has been there.
I call my blog TEA AND OTHER RITUALS. It began in May and was named to honor my winter Facebook posts of my morning ritual of tea. I love the practice of this blog and will probably continue to post as a way of staying honest with me. The practice of writing keeps me open; publishing my words keeps me honest; being honest keeps me humble. All-in-all a good practice.
Perhaps, like stories from indigenous cultures, there is no beginning or end to this story because one blends into the other. Being off the grid makes it easier to experience this circle of continuation, and to realize it is not the artificially imposed beginning and ending but it is the beauty of each moment seamlessly blending into the next. When there is no starting point there is no ending place, only the flow of each moment. The grid needs starting and stopping points. Perhaps the person who is off the grid to learn the music of nature has understood that grid music is human made. The notes, timing, key, adagios, and fugues are created by human minds, but the music of nature is an organic way of hearing that will only be found off the grid.
Like the impact of wolves being introduced back into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 has revitalized the ecosystem there, my going off the grid serves as a reminder that I must keep me in balance with nature. The grid is not an ecological system; it is human manufactured for our convenience, not for our good, but for our convenience. Human interference seems to most always upset the balance of all things. Our convenience is a term to be wary of as it often means causing imbalance in our ecosystems.
Taking time, stepping off the grid, stopping to look and listen is the best way to restore my balance, and then to re-examine goals for myself. I become more discerning of who and what I want to place my attention on. It is a product of the grid to choose convenience rather than living in balance with nature and leaving only the slightest footprint of my being here.
Ideas and thoughts to consider; being off the grid allows me time to do this. So day after tomorrow I begin. I'll keep you updated. Perhaps another blog entitled "off the grid" will happen.....but whatever, I'll see you somewhere in October or beyond.....
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