Changing the World, One Monday at a Time (Pt. 3)
In case you didn't notice, I've been MIA for the last two weeks. I have a very good and very acceptable reason for that: FAMILY.
Okay, that's not exactly true. The first week was Book Fair week at school and as the Librarian, it's kind of my job to pull that bad boy off. (With awesome volunteer help, of course!)
But the second week was because our family was on their annual "screen-free vacation".
Now, I'm the first to admit that my kidlets are in front of a screen way to much. I would love to be able to police them better but sometimes I'm not here and, in the vein of full disclosure, sometimes I have a deadline that I need to meet and the screen is my savior!
So every year, we load up the kidets and head off to a screen-free cabin in the woods. We take with us all the basics you need to get by for four-six days and TONS of games and activities. It's AWESOME. Yes, the first year the kidlets were resistant to the idea, but over the years, it's become one of our favorite traditions. Each family member picks two games and I always search for a couple of them we have never played. (This year, I introduced my family to Farkle, a family tradition on my side that my grandparents taught me to play.)
Another reason the techno-detox trip is amazing is that we focus on each other. We push aside everything that's going on in the world and really listen to each other. The boys hike. (I'm not allowed to go hiking because I totally turn into a helicopter mom, preventing my wild boys for falling into the stream and climbing limestone cliffs. I know. I'm so selfish.) While they're trekking, I curl up with a great book. (This year I made it through three and a half, and an audiobook on the way down.) We have dinner as a family and we take our time. With everything.
This year, knowing I was going to have to get back to blogging, I started thinking about how nice it was to be secluded from the negativity in the world. It wasn't just a detox from technology. It was a detox from the world.
And something amazing began to happen. I began to remember what it's like to not rush through life. I stopped hurrying my kids to get something done. I stopped yelling. I started thinking about what was important in our lives and what I was and wasn't giving to my family.
Change in the world can be sudden and large scale, but often that comes from some cataclysmic event that devastates lives. Positive change in the world takes small steps... baby steps, if you will. It takes constant vigilance. It takes courage to say that you are going to focus on making life, your life, the most important thing.
Sounds simple, right? It's really not. How many times have you made a choice because you care what others are going to think? How many times have you stopped your kids from being who they are because you don't want to deal with the look of irritation from someone you don't even know?
This week, my hope is that I will be able to hold on to this feeling I have. That I will let my kidlets be who they are and when the world crashes on them... because it will... I will not only protect them as best as I can, I'll also be their champion. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all had a champion?
