Your post speaks to a deeper part of this issue and continues to demonstrate you are wise beyond your years.

I admire and respect your decisions to unplug some things and “get back to nature” and physical activities that you genuinely enjoy. Speaking for myself, I’ve been finding that very difficult to do.

I’ve been living in Hawaii for 4 years now, and I can go a mile in any direction and find parks, restaurants, and shops that I didn’t even know were there. Large parts of the island (Oahu) remain completely unexplored. It’s surprising to me when I stop and really think about how little I’ve gotten out and enjoyed this paradise over the past 4 years. There’s always work to do; always a client wanting something; always an email to deal with…

Several weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, Roxanne and I were in the middle of a business meeting at 5pm in the afternoon. All of the sudden a piercing horn blew from what sounded like inside our own house. A few seconds later it blew again. We were surprised and, honesly, a little pissed that there was something interrupting our very important meeting.

I walked out to the living room to find our very dear friends had come by to “force” us to stop working and start our “vacation” promptly at 5pm that Friday. They had brought their airhorn and were blowing it in our window. We hadn’t even remembered to start our own vacation and the promises we had previously made to ourselves to stop working that Friday afternoon and simply celebrate all the hard work and long hours we had been putting in over the past several months.

Lesson learned? Until you’re able to pull yourself away from work and the digital world, let your friends/family help remind you how important it is to take care of yourself first. How recharging it can be to get away from the computer and work, even for just a few hours, and talk story (hang out) and have a beer with a good friend.

To summarize your above as I see it, it is about balancing life, especially about how connected and plugged in to the high tech world of internet / telecommunications and entertainment we need to be. About finding what really interests you and following that. Not just following all the hype. Part of it is about simplifying and getting in touch with nature more.

Colin, when I saw that you were going to let your flickr pro account lapse, I was a bit shocked. Because flickr and photography have been pretty much my number 1 hobby for the past year and I for one, couldn’t imagine being without my pro account, And I don’t want to lose another person from the community. But now I understand why you are letting it go. But funny, it is not like you let it go easily, it seems to be with difficulty that you let it go, but at least you did. You are so right to NOT be forced into entertainment that you don’t really use fully.

Here’s a few bits on how it works for me. I don’t have television period, no cable or tv whatsoever. But I love my mac and high-speed connection and gizmos like cell phone, ipod, Nikon d50 dSLR, etc.

Four times in the past year I backpacked for multiple nights in the very lonely, remote, steep, rough, snowy terrain, in the high mountains of Baja. And a 5th trip boat camping/ kayaking of a remote island in southern Baja. Family wants me to travel to Beijing China with them next month, I feel like I should take advantage of the opportunity, but I can’t generate motivation to go to a big, dirty, confusing, expensive city, even if it is culturally exotic China. I’d just rather be roughing it in nature on my vacations, not spending money endlessly in some over-populated metropolis.

So those are some ways I am finding a decent balance in my life, for whatever that might be worth to others.

Colin, what you write about above also speaks about priorities in life, making choices on how and where to spend our time and energy. The Ancient king Solomon of Israel has a lesson for us in this regard. In the bible book of Ecclesiastes, he writes about how he pursued endless interests in every affair and activity and possible human lifestyle and desire, but the ultimate conclusion he came up with, of what really matters, (which I believe you know) he stated at Ecclesiastes 12:13 (look it up if you don’t know it.) I have learned, and I’m convinced of the wisdom of this, through my own experience.

So true balance means that if you put God first that is all that really matters, the other things will fall into place. Would I rather be flickring and Photographing and mountain climbing than doing worship to God? -reading the bible and going to meetings? Many times yes. Do I neglect those things at time? Yes. But I strive to keep this right balance, for all the right reasons. Solomon also stated just before his grand conclusion on the ultimate search for wisdom: “…take a warning, to the making of many books [internet, info, media] there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.” A reminder of the limits to the ‘happiness’ we get from endless information produced by mankind.

In writing this, I felt some doubts because of the unpopularity of including ‘bible wisdom’ in a forum like this, as if people don’t want to hear that kind of stuff. But I think it fits EXACTLY with your topic of simplifying, unplugging, prioritizing, focussing in on what really matters and what will make you happy. So I think it is appropriate.

Thank you for considering my 2¢ worth.

……….and if you and Eliza like Chianti, BANFI!!!! it in my eyes is the best thus far.

Be Well

Liam

A few years before that we did a 1/2 attempt at a balance back by moving from the city to the countryside. It took a while to adjust to the slower pace and I think it was only last year I started to notice seasons and nature again. I grew up in the countryside and didn’t realise I actually missed it.

It’s a hard balance to do though and one I am sure I will swing from one way to the other through out my life. For my job I have to keep up to date but for my sanity there has to be something not plugged in.

Liam: A small world indeed. And you are right, people can be funny. I don’t want this note to sound as if I am saying that I’m not finding the Internet, or media in general, entertaining - because it is for sure. But perhaps my feeling of need to be as plugged in as I currently am is starting to fade. Thanks for commenting.

Diana: Thanks for stopping by. I too had the same resolve in early of ‘06 and managed to accomplish it, in my opinion. But there is always room to do better.

I had been saying these same things to my husband as 2006 wound down. One of my goals for ‘06 was to not have every minute scheduled and all over the place, we did managed to accomplish that. Over this past summer I got so overwhelmed by the RSS feed counts and trying to keep up. Trying to stay on top of news and latest technologies.

We got rid of cable in ‘06, I don’t miss it. It contributed to making it so easy to get outside over the summer. I’m hoping for 2007 to reconnect with the part of my life that was not attached to a computer.

All the best for 2007 and getting outdoors and finding balance.

I work overnight from 4P to 4A M-Th, when I get home it is still quite dark, I love to lay down in the grass and spend a half hour or so looking at the stars, what a beautiful thing we were blessed with, and a shooting star still makes my heart race.

Hey Colin, not sure how I got into this site, you look exactly like my 17 year old son, his name also happens to be Colin, and he lives in Glasgow Scotland. What a SMALL world we live in.

Peace, and be well

Liam

=) Seriously though, it’s really cool that you (and Dave) are finding balance in this seemingly digital world.