Farmer Eric Explains Why Aquaponics May Be California's Answer
I took a couple of days off, and it was a victory of sorts.
Here's what happened: I put my email on vacation mode so I would not feel obligated to respond right away and I stripped working down to the minimum.
When you're a freelancer in a digital world, it's an interesting challenge to figure out how to unplug. I seem to be getting there, and not a moment too soon!
In 48 hours, I only published and promoted only one blog post, went on only one conference call, sent out only five reports, built my Twitter following by only about 100 new followers, directed my VA, Candace, to research only three blog posts, scheduled only one guest poster, curated only a little content, responded to email only about five times, and responded to only about three phone calls.
Here's (some of) what else I did: I pet lots of baby chickens and turkeys; I took pictures and videos; I breathed deeply; I played with my cousin's very cool companion dog (my cousin has Muscular Dystrophy and recently brought Orion on his team to help with various items -- the dog is amazing!); visited an aquaponic farm (see video, above); tried -- and failed -- to weed wack; made myself available to my children (I have a special way of saying that I'm available that kind of drives them crazy); visited two fast food venues; made my daily 10,000 steps (in the fresh country air!); picked fresh lemons off my grandmother's lemon tree and helped the children make lemonade; made a delicious soup with Laura; enjoyed raw cream in my tea; read The Atlantic Monthly, O Magazine, and Cooks Illustrated cover to cover (plus read aloud in the car about the underground railroad and Vaclav Havel to an interested audience!); visited Target; fell out of bed in the middle of the night when the mattress carrying three people toppled over and managed to soften the impact of my son's head against a shelving unit and miraculously spilled no water (but that is another story); had time to really chat with my cousin, Lara, in a way that enriched my soul; and still made it back to the City on time for Little League.
The victory is that I used my time in a way that felt balanced. I portioned a few hours of my time to pay bills, while the majority of it went towards people and activities that matter only to my heart and soul.
Here are some pictures to to give you the flavor:
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'm leaving this blog open for all comments, but I prefer comments that aren't anonymous. Don't be shy! Tell us who you are. . .