We’ve just returned from a week long retreat in Somerset which was joyful and challenging, but which has left me in a very different place from before. Whether it lasts I don’t yet know.
Firstly we were invited to relinquish our phones. As freelancers we couldn’t quite hand them over but for the whole week I only looked at emails once a day. I deleted every newsletter or offer without opening. I moved any email needing attention to a ‘Do this after the 10th ‘ folder. And I maybe answered 2 emails a day and a couple of whatsapps.
For 10 days I did not look at Facebook (sorry if I missed your birthday). And when I returned to my on-grid life I decided to delete the Facebook App from my phone. I had lost my password to X anyway, and never had Instagram. I can still check Facebook on my laptop, but the joy/doom scrolling on my phone is gone.
We were served wonderful vegetarian food, and tonight will be my first time in a pub restaurant where I may have some meat – or maybe I won’t. Our caravan was deep in nature with a jug of cold water and a gentle walk to the toilet or shower.
I have never been out of touch with the world news for this long. I have probably missed things which I would have read or worried about deeply. But that was then and this is now.
For the last 2 days I have been quietly supporting one of Kath’s workshops as driver/support in an idyllic Oxfordshire retreat (with a deep bath to luxuriate in). I’ve been calmly working through those saved emails and anything else that has come in. I have 6 emails in my inbox now, rather than the 200+ that are often there.
Last night I had my first pint, and then a half. It was very tasty and went down very slowly.
I need to get a watch (or get my stepfather’s watch repaired maybe). I have found myself leaving my phone by the desk rather than carrying it with me all the time, and so knowing the time for things will need an old fashioned wrist watch.
I have returned to a couple of friend/connection apps, but here I have changed my profil to reflect my slightly changed view of life.
The big question – “Will it last ?”
I have no idea. My system will probably begin to speed up. I have some big projects coming along which require my full attention and drive, but I hope some of what I felt during the retreat will be carried into this work.
I’ve never done anything like this, and I’m enjoying the spaciousness and the enriched sense of wonder in the world, and nature.
Tomorrow I drive 7hrs back to Scotland/home, and I will need to be less interested in the trees and more interested in the road signs. But I still get to drive through the edges of the Lake District and through the most beautiful Borders landscapes. Traffic will be challenging around Birmingham, of course, but after Tebay (with its wonderful Farm shop services) the traffic will lessen and the vistas will increase.
As I head to Malta to work later this month, and Ukraine for a festival early May, I will navigate the delights of airports and trains and all manner of passport queues. Maybe this week off-grid will give me an added inner calmness to enjoy people watching, and relish the travelling as much as the getting there.
Thank you to all those we met on the retreat. I’m hearing how they are returning to the online and current world through beautiful messages. They are relishing even more their families, or their aloneness, or their landscape, or their music, or their dancing. Most I will never meet again, but they all helped me find a calm path to help me be the slightly different person I am today.