As you read this, I'm on a little road trip. I spent the first couple of days in Moab, UT, with plans to move next into southwest Colorado. Perhaps I'm there right now. Tomorrow I'll be heading into New Mexico to spend a few days with friends and family.
I've been planning the trip for a little while now. "Planning" being kind of a euphemism in this case--I knew which day I'd leave and that my first destination would be Moab. Beyond that, things were kind of ephemeral. I usually like it that way. It works for me.
Last week, as the trip impended, I was writing on my whiteboard things that absolutely had to happen before I left and one of them was "backup my laptop," and it hit me for the first time that instead of bringing my computer with me, perhaps I could completely take a sabbatical from the thing for the duration of the trip. No email, no writing, nothing. I'd just leave it at home. (Not that I would disconnect completely. I'd still bring my smartphone. Because I don't much plan ahead of time, Google's magic proves pretty invaluable.)
I spend hours a day in front of the computer. A week or so completely away from it sounded really delightful.
So I wrote on my whiteboard all the pieces I would need to write and schedule for publication to make it work. I tried to pull it off, but I didn't even come close. I'd have needed to hatch the plan a lot earlier in the process to have succeeded.
But no matter. The seed's been planted. A sabbatical from the computer. It sounds luxurious. I'm going to pick a time when doing so would feel delightful, relaxing, expansive. And I'm going to make it happen.