You Have No Events Scheduled Today

I have embraced the digital age. I blog, I get most of my mail electronically, I occasionally tweet, I have a flickr and a snapfish account, I love my iPad for looking up arcane facts, I have a cell phone and mostly now remember to carry it with me. I'm not hooked up to the same level as My Beloved is - he can actually make the TV remote do what he wants - but I'm firmly attached to my various electronic devices.  Even my calendar is online now, and it sends me daily reminders of what is on my schedule.

But, every now and then, it says, "You have no events scheduled today."

That's a day out of time, a day to lie in bed and read paperback potboilers, or to walk with the dog and not take my cell phone or even my digital camera, or to sit outside and just breathe in the blue sky peppered with birds. That's a day to telephone a distant friend or an elderly relative and talk for so long that my ear aches when I put down the phone. That's a day to stroll down the street to check in on the college kids who are making their own beer, and to hear about my neighbors' trip to the mountains. That's a day to grub around in the garden, tying up the volunteer tomato plants and pulling a few weeds. 

Some days, it just feels good to ignore the bad news and to shirk my civic responsibility, to unplug and to let the world take a few turns without me. So, since I have no events scheduled today, this seems like a good time to start. I'll rejoin the rat race soon enough, but for now I'm offline.