Happy Monday morning my friends,

“You have no idea how hard I’ve looked
For a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What’s the point of bringing gold to
The gold mine, or water to the ocean.
Everything I came up with was like
Taking spices to the Orient.
It’s no good giving my heart and my
Soul because you already have these.
So I’ve bought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.”

-Rumi

I had the greatest weekend. It was my daughter’s 14th birthday. Birthdays are big in our lives. The week of, the day of, the weekend of… You get the picture.

Maybe not all families grew up making big deals about birthdays. My family did. I pass that along to my girls and my husband. We are never about the gifts, we are about the experiences and feeling ridiculously loved and special.

I am sure we are not unique that way.

On Friday, on the headspace app Andy challenged his audience to put their phone away for the weekend. I did. It was so good.

We went paddle boarding. We went snorkeling, running, reading, and watching favorite reruns (Sherlock). I made food from scratch: banana pancakes, Jamie Oliver’s gnocchi (so easy) and a giant Cobb salad (everyone’s favorite).

We went to a water park and I even went on the one slide that I have always avoided. A really deep one that looks intimidating. My husband joked: Live intentionally. Live in the moment.

I told fear to be quiet. And jumped down. That zero gravity feel. So so good.

I really don’t like my phone.

I sometimes seriously think about getting a flip phone. I can still do so much with my desktop computer. But I use my phone for taking pictures of my family and the beauty that surrounds us. I listen to podcasts (my favorite pastime) and I listen to music almost all the time. So hard to cut the cord.

You know what was effortless? Cutting the cable cord. We cancelled cable almost 8 years ago.

The television is almost never on in our house. Other than a designated movie night on Fridays, no one in our household watches TV. I am truly grateful for that. When I go to friends’ homes who have the TV on in the background, I really get anxious. The news, the reality shows, even the sports, I cannot stomach who wins or who loses.

My nephew is a Major League Baseball player. Pretty big deal really. He’s an ace pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. My sister sends me a text about how his games went. I don’t follow along. I have never watched a game.

I am all about having very little outside chatter in my life.

There is peace in letting selective things in and keeping most everything else out.

There is limited space in our lives. We choose what we fill that space with.

Instead of filling our lives with mindless happenings that bring constant anxiety we should intentionally pick what we want more of in our lives. Choose those first, and then see that there is not much time left for the nonsense.

What I am getting at is that we all have the time.

Plenty of time. To do all the things we complain that we don’t have time doing.

I always want to read more.

Buying books that I can’t keep up reading is something that is always hunting me.

You know what keeps me from reading books?

My phone.

I finished the book that was hovering by my bedside for the past month.

Put away your phone and see your life transform. Do it for the weekend. Do it for an hour, or two or three. Do it for the whole evening. An entire week.

You have all the time to do all that matters to you today. Turn off the noise and get busy living.

Tell me how it went.

So much love to all of you.