Peace

I've decided to make some small changes in my life to lighten my load and feel at peace.  There are basically four simple things I've changed recently.  I'm biking more frequently, drinking more water, writing more consistently, and deactivating my facebook account. 

I think I've been on facebook since 2009 when I was a student at Berea College.  It was a nice distraction from studying.  But something has changed inside me and I can't give a concrete answer as to why but I know without a doubt that it's not healthy for me.  I'm not saying I will never get back on facebook, but I know with absolution that I need a stretch of time without it.  Not only have the ads been frustrating to me and the ads for friends of people I don't know, but it's a total waste of time and robbing me of peace.  I might only be on facebook ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at night, but that's a significant amount of time to be wasting not really connecting or doing anything inspiring or soul nourishing.  I've been off facebook only two days now, and I already feel significantly better.  I think reading all the comments is overwhelming at times, because I am evaluating everyone's condition, etc.,  To be blunt, I need to take care of some basic things in my life right now before I can even attempt to sympathize with someone's lost keys or spilled coffee that I hardly know. 

I also think about clever things I might want to tweet, but then I realize the freedom- I don't have to! I can enjoy this moment and this beauty and celebrate it fully now.  Facebook had added stress to my life over the years.  Maybe I added someone that I thought was a "friend", and then they ended up stalking me.  And I wish the situation had never been.   Family members have deleted me from their friends list because I said something true in my soul, and I see that facebook is truly a superficial realm of networking.  It's good for an address book, locating a person you might want to stay with on your way to Denver or New York, but it's not a social community. 

I have found I'm already reading more, working more purposefully to find work, praying more, thinking of my friends with more intention, and caring about the news in the world more, too.  I never thought I would be one of the people that would deactivate my account, but it doesn't feel healthy anymore.