Find it funny that on the road to get to know myself & the world around, I first must walk through a door marked "unknown."





I have learned to embrace butterflies. The ones that fill your stomach before you do something daring. May seem a small act, going without technology/social media, for a handful of days, because I've chosen to cut my self off. (But tell that to the butterflies who have begun to occupy my tummy.)
Finding it a little sad saying goodbye to my friends on Twitter, Facebook for a four day #techblackout. To regroup, to touch the terra firma... for a spell.

Leigh
aka: Supertramp

In celebration of Independence day I am doing something rare, although not unique. I am stealing a page from a pair of canons in American Literature, Emerson & Thoreau. I am going back to nature, into the wild, heading up for a long weekend with my family at my parents' remote lakeside home. The path up north has been tread hundreds of times. I have visited this land we call 40 Acres with it's cabins, glacier lake, lopsided dock, well water, and abounding wildlife for as many years as it has acres. An heirloom family laden Paradise. But here's the rub:

I am cutting the tether of technology. Pulling the plug! Well...for a handful of days at least. Four to be exact.

Being untethered this weekend (#techblackout) will mean no computer, no BlackBerry, no television (except I plan to cheat and watch Wimbledon!) no email, and this one pains me the most, no social media, no Twitter.

I'm not a real Transcendentalist. I love social media, society and the hustle-bustle of daily life. My way is a busy, electronic playground. But I have found that things we love can also become our undoing if we let them. So, I am declaring my independance from the ties (techstuffs) that bind me. This social experiment is more about FUNdaMENTALism. Skinny-dipping, that is metaphorically, getting down to the skin your in.

Seems a bit silly to say that I'll miss the constant communication with you all. The tweets, the cool bite sized info that fills the voids in the day, keeps my fingers busy, and in many ways warms my soul. But the techy tether is to be severed nonetheless. For these reasons:

I need to draw true warmth from my loved ones around me.
I want to sit and listen to the birds, feel the rift of waves on the side of the oar flanked boat.
I need to catch a large mouthed bass, with my father at my side.
I cannot hear, see, smell and taste as well when I am talking. (ie; tweeting)
I want to pay 100% attention to my husband who puts up with my social habits as best he can.
I plan to take a nap.
I plan to embrace the chatter of nature over the chatter of social society.
I need to plug back in to nature's outlet and feed my little outdoor girl soul.
I will sip wine, play bocce, shower with bottled water so as not to ruin my bought blondness.
I will be present, in the here and now, aware.
And, of course, I will take pictures.

The people I communicate with in social media have become more than robust personalities, they have become part of my daily life, they have become my friends. And it will be wacky to be totally with out that camaraderie. But, I'll be back Tweeting like it's going outta style on Tuesday.

Hope you all have a safe, wonderful, holiday!

(ps. very difficult to not be there for #followfriday, a day that make me smile all day. I'll catch up with you, though)

Leigh