Daily writing prompt

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

View all responses

These days, I love to unplug at anytime and thankfully, the weather’s no longer chilly so I can.

I usually go into the garden to unplug. I don’t bring my phone with me because there’s nowhere to put it on my body. If I put it in my pants pockets, my pants will fall, especially after my 10-pound weightloss from last year and I don’t want that to happen.

Though my phone’s not with me, I still get notifications on my watch but only if I’m within 30-feet of my phone, which often times, I’m not. I quite enjoy the time away from my phone because it makes me temporarily forget I have a house and life to run from my phone, not to mention a semi-concierge service where my relatives would come to me with their pesky little problems.

It makes me angry that they do while it also makes me sad that they do simply because I’m not my mother. I don’t resort to throwing a tantrum by screaming my head off every time I don’t have a solution to a problem.

I think it’s why I like to unplug, why I need to unplug – to dodge the family and their problems.

I remember there was the time when I headed into the mountains to unplug. There was no cell service up there and I didn’t know it the entire time I was hiking the 6 miles and taking pictures. I guess I should’ve checked my phone at least once.

When I finally got back to civilization more than 4 hours later, my phone couldn’t stop dinging. The family was looking for me, calling me like my number is one of those telethon hotline. “Where are you?” Their texts also read. “Your mother’s looking for you.” Then why didn’t she call me herself instead of having everyone else contact me?

These days, I try not to go anywhere without a cell signal though I really want to. I enjoy being away from civilization in the quiet and serene national forest areas. I don’t know why I should care about my relatives’ problems but, perhaps, somewhere down below, after 5 years of helping them, spoiling them, it’s become a sort of habit for me.