Valuing disconnection

It may seem odd in the context of a vanity blog devoted to sharing ideas with friends to highlight the value of disconnection. Bear with me.

I am spending the weekend at my buddy Sherree’s home. Mary is on a cruise with her sister, Daughter One is house-sitting back at the ranch and Daughter Two is on a retreat with her sorority.

As it happens, Sherree is at work and her daughter is hanging with a friend. So I basically have the grounds to myself. The cool thing here is that it’s the home of a dear and trusted friend and so I feel safe and welcome. But this is a friend with whom I’d been largely out of touch for years; therefore, the house itself doesn’t hold much in the way of mnemonics for me.

Bottom line, I feel safe, dry, warm and welcome but entirely outside my normal. I am completely free to observe, think, wonder and conclude without much of the usual pull of everyday stuff.

I was standing out on the patio watching two raptors (I can never be sure whether I’m looking at hawks or peregrines or…) “drawing lazy circles in the sky.” I wondered if I’d witness a stoop as they circled and peered, their bodies  following the air currents while their heads flicked back and forth, studying the ground below for tender morsels.

Sherree’s dogs ran in and out, one or the other occasionally stopping to see if I could be induced to provide a bit of  scratching, but mostly just hanging out, on the prowl for the next compelling doggie distraction.

The windfall tree leaning on the fence provided human distraction for awhile, as did the guy running around the track in the park below with his leashed dog trotting along beside.

And now a few minutes of tapping on the confuser.

I’ve no earthly idea how I will spend the remainder of my afternoon and the absence of plan or promise bothers me not one whit.

Another good day.