Barefoot Hippie Girl: Step Away from The...Technology?

Sometimes giving up the good means...taking a step back. In time. To a period without modern convenience. To unplug for an hour, or several hours, or a day, or even a week, from technology.

Technology beckons. We want to tweet what's happening. Update our status to what we are doing. If we step away, if we unplug-we might miss something.

But what are we missing IRL, as modern lingo puts it?

Yesterday I stepped away from my computer, from Facebook, from twitter, and from my blog-for over 13 hours. (I know, I counted.)

And I survived! Not only did I survive, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed not knowing what was happening.

I road tripped with my offspring to Greenfield Village. I got to happen with them.

I think this may be the first (more than an hour) road trip that I have taken sans Mr. Hippie, but with the offspring. I am not a huge fan of long car rides. The only reason I like them now is because it gives Mr. Hippie and I the chance to talk. I have never done a long road trip by myself. Unlike my brave sibs, who have travelled multiple times from TX or OK to MI all by themselves. And I certainly have never undertaken a long trip just me and the kids. When you travel with kids on your own, you have to think, where does everyone hang out when you have to go to the bathroom?

But, we made it. Two and a half hours out, and two and a half hours back. There was a minimum of fighting. And we had fun!

We sang hymns together.

We read the Psalms of the day.

We hung around in that simpler time frame of the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s.

We rode in a 1911 Ford Model T Touring car.

We ate cookies and watch the clock chime.

We walked in the rain, and reveled in the drops.

We watched Orville, Wilbur and Kate Wright talk about their bicycle shop, and how they applied bicycle riding theories to flight, and succeeded in flying.

not quite this extravagant, but you get the idea

We watched a Gershwin Show. A wonderful pianist. Two men and two women-dancing and singing popular Gershwin tunes. I never realized how many of them I knew. It was simple, and fun, and we all loved it.

We tried on hats again. And bought LC a bonnet for her birthday.

We visited the glass shop-twice. In the morning we saw them layer white, cobalt, and clear glass, then pull, stretch, and twist it into a 20' long, thin strand that they cut into smaller pieces and shape into candy canes. In the afternoon, we watched the three artists blow, and shape glass into creamers.

It was an amazing dance between the glory bowl, the furnace, and the tools and shaping station.

It was an amazing dance of each doing their part at just the right moment. While the glass was at the perfect temperature.

It was an amazing lesson in patience but precision.

We stopped for dinner at Panera, and everyone got their favorites.

We arrived home tired and happy.

I was convicted that I need to give myself a computer limit. Post and link up in the morning. For a defined period of time. Read other's blogs and comments later in the day. For a defined period of time.

And that's it. Let the world of technology past me by on any given day.

Our generation doesn't need the cobwebs/dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby cross-stitch reminder. We need our own Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest version.