We have had a busy couple of weeks, making HUGE impact on our farm. We finished off some fencing and planted over 30 raspberry canes. We took down about 15 trees, bucked them up, cleared the brush and had days of bonfires.
We played tag in the meadow, while the winter sun briefly warmed us, and soccer on the upper grass, sweating and smiling and pouring long gin and tonics.
We jumped on the trampoline, we had epic journeys welcoming goats. We prepped our farm stand for spring, cleaned dozens of eggs, watched star wars (I know, we are a few months late)
We had movie nights, make ice cream sunday’s, went for lunch at the inn. We hiked in the rain, and weeded the garden, welcoming the spring bulbs as they popped open. We had mind blowing dance parties.
The sun came up. And the sun went down. The moon was so bright that our whole farm was glowing.
We have a lived a full and happy life, and there were millions of moments that could have been “gold” for an influencer to share.
I mean, we drove down the highway with a GOAT!
But I didn’t livestream, or live share ANY of it. I took a few pics, shared a few of them when I had time, but at no point on my living over the past weeks did I purposefully include social media into my life.
Want to know WHY I am not live Streaming my life?
Because I didn’t have time to.
I was TOO BUSY living.
Too busy to stop life happening so I have time to set up periscope. Too busy laughing with my kids and jumping on the trampoline (while simultaneously tightening my pelvic floor) to take action shots. Too busy cuddling, walking, and working on our farm to share it with anyone. Too sweaty dancing, and teaching the kids my rad old school moves.
Obviously we are all aware that where life used to come first, something has changed because of social media. Our purpose for doing things has switched from “filling our souls” to “filling our social feed”. I see people sacrificing personal experience because they are too busy updating their persicope/instagram/snapchat/insert-any-social-account-here followers.
I did not periscope us attempting to get a goat out of our truck – it was hilarious, and it is something that I am sure billions (ha) of people would have loved to experience… but that would have 100% detracted from MY ability to experience it.
I want to be immersed in my life, have it overcome me. I want my hands full, too full to fit my mobile phone. I want my life to be filled of memories that I have experienced, completely and with all of my attention.
When I am “multi tasking” I am missing out. I am not present, I am not giving into the moment. I am assessing the situation from afar, adjusting lighting, wondering why my hair is doing that weird thing again?
But when my phone is away, and my digital life is locked into the computer, I actually get to LIVE. I allow time to progress naturally, and for each moment to define itself.
Then after each busy weekend, I get to wake up on Monday morning, sit at my desk while my kids are off at school and re-live my weekend and share the parts of it I loved with my social friends, when I have time, and when it makes more sense.
Delays are okay, and living life in the NOW is exactly what we should be doing. Trust me, when you go offline… no one will hold it against you. Having a separation between “church and state” or “digital and real life” is as it should be, no matter how hard it can sometimes be to maintain.
I think we each need to fight for our ability to not be live streaming our life. Hold strong to the fact that being IN the MOMENT is better, and even if we are working “in the industry” knowing that there are boundaries that are needed, and times when we can be “off the clock”.
My days have been extraordinary lately… not because they were perfect, but because I was present.