an ancient, long-buried gift*

Sometimes, things just line up in such a way you almost fall into the path you are supposed to be on. For me, this means I am taking the entire month of October off social media. That’s right– no Instagram, facebook or twitter. I’m even keeping my texts and emails down to very limited days and hours.

The idea has been percolating and then when I read Andrew Sullivan’s piece “I Used To Be A Human Being, that pretty much sealed the deal. (*the title of this post comes from his essay)

Not sure how it all came together to begin this morning, but oddly enough it is a most auspicious start seeing as it is both the first day of October (a time to head into hibernation) and a wildly cool double New Moon.

AND, if that all weren’t enough– this morning I participated in a program that planted over 268 trees in Providence!

A few months ago, I got a handwritten note in my mailbox. It was from a woman down the street letting us know that the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program had trees for anyone who wanted to sign up.

Wha-what?  Could I possibly love this city any more? Needless to say, I replied the same day saying:  SIGN ME UP!

I found out last week that this morning was the day– above is the demonstration of how to plant the trees– simple, but a couple of critical tips to ensure they grow for 100 years.  And so, with the help of my neighbors– there are now two baby maple trees (rather Charlie Brown-esque) in front of my house.

Now I am home, changed out of my muddy wet clothes (yes, there is a steady rain outside) and let me tell you– there are two VERY happy pups who are quite delighted with my plan to go all analog for the month of October.

My intention is to have deep quiet for reading, meditation, house cleaning, pruning the garden and putting it to bed and, of course, studio time. 

I’m hoping it looks a lot like this:

Whatever it shapes up to be– I am super excited to explore what life is like off-line. The past year has been more extroverted than normal for me and I am way overdue for some deep quiet and restorative pace to my days.

So here we go, off on Staycation!

Take good care of you and I’ll see you on the flip side–

bisous, Elizabeth

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