12 hours in Neverland
My Wednesday morning started off quietly as I slowly woke up to the smell of rain lingering in my room. The light white curtains swayed in-coordination with the wind as I forced myself to sit up to better make out the time. My best guess was that it was a little past 6am, which would explain the dim gray-ish sunlight peaking through my windows. Before I could (find my phone to) affirm my estimations, panic filled the halls of my still very quiet home. Little footsteps ran up and down the stairs muffling something unable to be heard. The inaudible panic grew closer, finally launching me out of bed and into all the commotion. My once tired eyes are now wide awake and ready to Case A: Convince my brothers that there's nothing in their room and that it was just a bad dream; Case B: Whip up an extremely early breakfast or Case C: Replace the batteries in the remote because Netflix duhh. Whatever it was, I was all ears... I would like to formally make it known that we are fine; that the house didn't burn down, there was no nightmares or deprivation from Netflix, but brace yourself for this next part, NO WIFI! The same tone one would use to scream FIRE FIRE FIRE to warn others of a life or death situations, my brothers have taken it upon themselves to warn us that the internet connection was unavailable. With disappointment and tears waiting to pour, they seemed hopeless grabbing on to their heads and each other. It was like watching a cheesy hospital show and the patient's loved one's just found out that their family member is not going to make it. You know, just the kind of over-the-top dramatic performance that I would expect from these two. They dragged themselves into my room mumbling and complaining as I tried to convince them that today is going to be a million times more fun because of this "unfortunate" malfunction.
This post ties into a previous post titled "Just have fun with it" where we talked about maintaining kid-ish fun as we physically become less and less of a kid. As a kid, little hiccups like a snow day or a blackout was a time to get our creative wheels spinning. From the splash pad, to our neighbours basketball net, to the park to our other neighbours house for a movie; we (the older half of this family) had a sense of keeping busy for hours.
Let's reteach kids and ourselves how to have fun without the dependency of electronic devices. So here's a few things we did during our "unfortunate" malfunction to keep some little ones (and myself) from panicking.
1. Slept in
After finally being able to (find and) check my phone, I was surprised to see that it was actually almost 11am and yet I was so so sleepy. Maybe it was this rainy weather tempting me to cancel my day and get back in bed but whatever the influence, before I knew it I had my sleeping mask back on and I was out like a light, dreaming up new dreams #noregrets
2. Slowly easing in
I followed my usual daily routine but this time, very very slowly. I took my time to get downstairs, took my time to make "breakfast" and took all the time to enjoy it outdoors. Maybe it was that my phone didn't ring and buzz commands on how I should conduct my day and when, so I did what felt natural and eased into it, at my own pace and in my own time.
3. Shoutout to long walks and sunsets
I always try to make the time to run to the sunrise or walk to the sunset. Either or works for me but I have to admit I'm more of a sunset kinda gal!
During our wifi-less crisis I decided to stretch my usual walks to 5 kilometres instead of 2. And as you can see I also attempted to practice my very limited photography skills for the sake of killing time.
4. Movie #1
My brothers have calmed down at this point in the evening and you honestly wouldn't think that these were the same kids that were about to pull out their hair crying just a few short hours ago.
We were debating which pre-downloaded movie we should watch before they opted out to play video games instead. Let's just say I didn't get to watch The Greatest Showman (for the millionth time) but sat there trying to piece together what was so interesting about Fortnite anyways?
5. Movie #2
After video games grew unbearable, we (the older half of the family) set up a little movie theatre in my room. A spare mattress was dragged to the empty space on one side of my bedroom floor topped with blankets and pillows opposite to the blank wall that would soon project our thrilling flick of the night.
Did I forget to mention that there was pizza and ginger beer involved?
12 hours after what was supposedly a horrendous horror, we're all still in one piece! Tadahh! I was hoping to squeeze time for Scattergories or Twister but the night fell quicker then I had expected. (Can you tell I got over the moon excited about hanging out with my siblings without a phone in-between us?). Well something that seemed awful, especially to those that have work to do, turned out to be not half bad.
I'm not a person that is often on my phone or on social media but I have to admit my day took a slight hit. I guess this was a good time to test my creativity, time management and improvisation. Or maybe this was a good time to show gratitude towards the devices and connection I possess and maybe take for granted. Or towards the people we take for granted because we are soo invested in anything that can hold a connection to external places and people. Whatever the unfathomable lesson, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, even the most bizarre internet glitches, in order to reintroduce us to creativity and imagination, just like in Neverland...
Stay creative and fun, Cheers
“There is a saying in Neverland that every time you breathe, a grown-up dies.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Affirmations:
I am easy going
I am not anxious about my plans changing
I accept change with ease/grace
I trust that there is a reason for everything
I make the best of every situation
I am creative with my time
I am grateful for my access to technology
I am not dependent on social media/my phone
I cherish all the people in my life
I cherish my inner child by expressing myself