3 Nov 2014

Hestia completes...a Digital Sabbath

Darling Tom
I was feeling a bit trepidatious on Saturday night as I switched off all my electrical goodies: Would I be able to make it through 24 hours of no computery, ipaddy, internetty lolcat access?

One part of me said yes, the other part of me said: "Let's go look up 'success rates for Digital Sabbaths on the internet' before we do anything too hasty".



But it was all switched off.

So here was the plan.  Yes, I had a plan.  Which is probably the very thing that one is supposed to be getting away from with this DS thing entirely...

1  Have leisurely morning with dog and son.
2  Read newspapers without dog or son.
3  Paint a little
4  Be at one with myself
5  Empty the poly-tunnel of desiccated tomato plants.

How it actually turned out was more like this....

1  Took dog for walk in park.  Really early because he keeps getting up during the night to come and say hello.  I am tired and ratty.

2  I sit on a damp bench and study the sky.  Even in tired and ratty state, can see that it is gorgeous.  I do actually wonder how I would paint THAT cloud in watercolours.  Start to feel a bit better.  Realise that I don't have a single thing to rush home for and sit there staring at the sky for a bit longer. Staring at the sky is a most pleasant way to waste a bit of your life.  Better than facebook.

3  Come home to discover Sonshine has gone out to buy milk.  But not my newspaper.  Is mysteriously STILL IN HIS JAMMIES.  Can feel tranquil sky-staring Hestia spiralling away down the plughole.

4  Dry off dog and stomp off to buy newspaper.

5  Kick Sonshine out of living room and settle down to read newspaper.

6 Newspaper is depressing.  I learn that singer Katie Melua has had a spider living in her ear for a week.  Also, that Lord Lucan possibly did or didn't kill the Nanny.  Some random stuff about the Labour Party in Scotland.  The fashion magazine - I vow never to be caught dead in any of the clothes that the pencil thin model is wearing.  To be fair, she doesn't look happy about it either.

7  Sonshine decides that he WILL come with me to beach to let Nero have a run.  We have a lovely run in very windy, but sunny conditions. But then Sonshine splats headlong into a gigantic HUFF when I explain that we are not going in for lunch to the Ettrick Bay Tearoom.

8  We go back home and I spend 20 minutes persuading Sonshine to go out and start picking up the leaves.  I watch him for a bit.  I have seen more enthusiastic public executions.

9  My mother phones.  I feel guilty about not being as interested in the tiny goings on in her life as she is.  Guilt quadruples as I realise that I regularly tell the world about the minutiae of mine and expect you, dear reader, to be utterly AGOG and FASCINATED.

10  I decide to paint a watercolour of Tom Hiddleston.  I abandon it because the picture is somewhere in the depths of Facebook.  Plus, am confident that he will look more like Tom and Jerry than Tom Hiddleston by the time I'm finished with him.

11  I decide to read a book instead.  But it's on the Kindle app on my ipad and I know what will happen if I so much as slide the damn thing 'on'.

12  I lie on the sofa staring at the ceiling and wonder how we coped before the internet.

At 5.15pm it is time to go out for dinner - which is lovely.  On my return, I am surprised to find that I am not inclined to log in to see what has been happening.

The itch that I have been keen to scratch all day has subsided.

Next weekend, I will be better prepared.  I will make sure that I have downloaded and printed out the lovely profile of Tom Hiddleston ..... and I will have denuded the library of all the books that take my fancy.

I can't honestly say that I have reconnected better with Sonshine - because he DIDN'T take a Digital Sabbath (are you MAD?!) but I did spend less time Being Busy.

And that was nice.

And I'll be doing it next weekend too.

How about you, have you got one scheduled

8 comments:

  1. Right, I want to join in, BUT! Am I allowed to use Netflix? Because I can watch it on our telly, without checking the internet, but obv it uses internet to work. My Sunday routine generally includes a film and I'd miss It otherwise.

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    Replies
    1. I would count netflix as telly, and telly is allowed.

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  2. I am regularly without interwebs over summer. There tends not to be much of a wi-fi (or often phone) signal in the middle of a field :D

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    Replies
    1. You are too busy to be bothered about t'intertubes when you are trading corsets and head-dresses and all manner of beautiful stuff. You iz not in trouble with the addictions of hte internet kind. Yours is woolly :-D

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  3. Wow, this is so cool to me. I am really enjoying following along with this process. Thanks for the idea of having a plan and being better prepared.

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    Replies
    1. Ash - The more I think about it, the less I am sure that planning OUGHT to be part of the process. I think that perhaps a necessary element is to allow yourself to become BORED! And when you become bored, great creative things will happen :-D

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  4. Just reposting back. I had my Digital Sabbath yesterday and it was awesome. I really feel rested and rejuvenated.I did a lot of journalling and doodling. You are very right about the plan, I made one but didn't need it at all.

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  5. The very idea of a digital sabbath fills me with dread! :D I feel like I get little enough computer time without restricting it further (neither of my boys likes me to go on the computer if they're around).
    Cx

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