In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.
It’s a day that ends in “y,” so this means I wake up to wade through a lake of dog piss in the kitchen in the morning on my way to coffee. It seems more than a little unfair that I should have to navigate said lake prior to caffeine.
Suffice it to say, it is not delightful, and this is the third day it has happened, even though extraordinary measures have been taken to prevent it in the prior two days (last night the fault was The Child’s, and I wake her up to inform her that she is responsible for the cleaning of it today).
I add it to the list of un-delightful things, which is just like complaining and probably not going to earn me a book deal any time soon.
Drinking my coffee in bed this morning, I consider the day – a walk, two yoga classes, an early-morning invitation to a birthday drink after the second class. I am tired, sleeping poorly, but very much aware, even with the dog pee, of how grateful I should be as this day unfolds in birdsong and sunshine in front of me.
Later in the day, with just a few hours between teaching small children yoga and teaching adults yoga, I feel the siren call of social media. It’s a little craving in the center of my chest. It has been nearly two weeks, and it is still a thought in my head, to visit The Facebook or pop in to Instagram.
I have figured out that I can view Facebook events without actually logging on, the public ones anyway, and that makes me feel like staying off Facebook is the best choice – for good. We will see. Still plenty of time left.
Instagram remains problematical. I have not been taking nearly any pictures on my phone or DSLR, partly because the weather has been heinous, and partly because…I don’t know. I am working to slim down my digital life, and I have been more discerning in what pictures I take and what I keep when I take them (as evidenced by the scant photography on this blog).
In general, this social media break thus far has afforded me the luxury of a minor creative crisis. I am working on many different projects at once with more time and less static in my brain, but still struggling to pin something down and get immersive with it. I think this exploration is ultimately positive, but it is unsettling as well. I cannot seem to commit to food or non-fiction or poetry or fiction or photography or painting, so I am doing a little bit of all of it.
We will see what happens.