Month: September 2018

On my kitchen counter is a basket I use to corral all of my charging devices: phone, iPads, Fitbit, Waterpik, etc. Its a tangled web of plugs and cords but they are in one location so I can  locate what charger I need for what device. Oh shit! I only have 10% battery charge on my phone. What does my phone charger look like? I plug one end into the outlet and the other  into my phone and the magic little light says my battery is charging.  Crisis averted! It’s like  Star Trek Captain Kirk tells Scotty “I need full power” and Scotty says “Aye, Aye Captain.” and off they go where no man has gone before. 

So am I addicted to my electronic devices? Just because I become very nervous when I realize I left my phone at home, or the internet is down, doesn’t mean I can’t do my day without them. Of course I can be a social techie user, I can control myself and use like normal people. One hour on my IPad  doesn’t mean I will be unable to stop….  I think I may be self medicating! I am running from something or I have a hole in my soul I am trying to fill. I don’t have a charger or any power source to plug into, how do I recharge myself?

If watts or volts of electricity can’t power me up, I need to think about what can. Unplugging from worry and resentment allows me to rest my mind and experience some peace. I meditate every day for at least 10 minutes and usually I will feel more clear headed when I am done. I worry about checking out too much and just hiding and isolating from life. I just realized that overuse of my electronic devices serves the same purpose— I can isolate and hide from life. Damn! That means I need to find some balance of plugged in and unplugged, but living in balance is not one of my strengths.

Taking a walk is one way I know to recharge my soul but still feel at peace. Life is a marathon, so resting and recharging means I can be ready to run when I want to. Regularly allowing my muscles and mind to rest gives me a reservoir of energy to draw on. Constant stress and power surges increase the amount of cortisol in my body.  I am simply overloaded with bad ju-ju and my body is so stressed that I can’t respond anymore. Too much of anything is not good for me. I can eat to give my body energy but if I overeat I am a lethargic sofa slug. When my phone or IPad is 100% charged, leaving it plugged in for 24 hours more will not increase the charge more than 100%.

I wish I knew where the sweet spot of energy use and energy recharge was. Until then I will just need to experiment and keep my devices charged up. Put me on a desert island with no electricity and I would still try the tin can and string Walkie talkie to reach you!

There are times when life brings together two words which appear to be totally unrelated. Toads. Raspberries. Friendships formed with nothing in common. The “odd” couple that defies the rules of engagement and cultural expectations. The bond or connection that is real and felt strongly, but can’t be explained because similarity or shared culture are absent. Trust me, raspberries and toads do fit together, so follow me….

My sister, who lives in Alaska, is fortunate to  have a “public” raspberry patch in her neighborhood.  She picks them, eats many on the spot, and brings some of the sweet and tart fruit home.  Unfortunately she blames her raspberry picking, and all the  reaching and straining, on a muscle pull in the middle of her back. Besides the thorny bush, there is a cost to picking raspberries! A few days after she told me her story I was walking on a path behind houses in my neighborhood and I spotted a raspberry patch in a “public” yard. I smiled and mused how many times I had walked past it and not noticed it. My hand reached for one of the raspberries and I smiled as I ate it thinking of my connection to my sister thousands of miles away.

So that’s the raspberries, but what about toads? Labor Day weekend I had family visitors and  we decided to walk through the sculpture park in Loveland. Walking at a leisurely pace we viewed and discussed each sculpture. There was a frog sculpture and the question was posed “What is the difference between a frog and a toad?”  My answer was “ You know toads have bumpy bodies like raspberries.” Whoa!!  There’s  the connection!  I know I have a million bits of memory stored just waiting for the opportunity to connect with something. Missing pieces are filed away just waiting to be needed again.

The connection between toads and raspberries is really part of a much larger connection I share with family. We are connected by blood, but what really counts is our connection by love. We walked at our own pace through the sculpture park and walk our own pace through life. One of us may lag behind, but family “waits up” so we can all walk together. If someone runs ahead we know they will circle around and join us again. Family does have an “I” in it so we are all individuals , but family is a indivisible bond.

connection :

c : a relation of personal intimacy (as of family ties)