Distracted.

Jan 19, 2019 | Blog | 4 comments

The phone on the table vibrates.

Lights up with another message.

Who is it? What do they want?

It’s dinner time. Silas is telling me about school.

The urge is to pick it up. (Just a quick peek.) No.

Silas continues.

Resist the urge. Fight the urge. Distracted. The phone vibrates.

Another message.

A text? Facebook? A tweet.

The blood pressure rises.

It’s an email.

Someone demanding answers about this.

They wanted that! Angry!

Ella’s courageously bouldering across the climbing wall.

They need an answer. Demand an answer.

The water is boiling on the stove.

Overflowing with distraction.

Engrossed.

The phone vibrates. At a light.

One quick peek won’t hurt.

Yes, it will. No, it won’t. Of course it will!

The phone rings. It vibrates.

Distracted.

Put the phone down. Focus.

My neck hurts. It hurts for weeks. I’m slouching.

Listen. Emily is telling you about her day, her poetry, her event plan.

We are busy.

But, is it urgent?

Is it necessary?

Breathe. Re-assess. Breathe. Calibrate.

The phone vibrates.

Hold on. Turn it off.

Put it down. Pick it up. Put it down. Breathe.

Focus. Distracted. The phone rings.

The blood pressure builds.

Who am I? Who are you? The phone vibrates.

We used to write letters. Put them in the mailbox.

Wait.

The response used to come back in the mailbox.

What was wrong with that?

Too slow. Hurry.

Breathe.

So many people tell me they feel it. I feel it. We feel it. Distracted.


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4 Comments

  1. Jacob Enns

    Thanks for putting it so well. Very relatable and this is something we all face. I find my morning meditation really helps.
    The app I use has ironically allowed me to relate better to my other apps! 🙂

  2. Tina Barnes

    I have no idea how you and Emily juggle all of your responsibilities and my admiration for you both grows daily.

  3. Jan Steinman

    Thank you for that, Adam!

    I have gone one step further, a step impossible for a busy MLA: I don’t have a cell phone! And our land-line is only in our office, a half-floor up from the rest of the house. It makes it easier to ignore. It has an answering machine function. If it’s really important, we’ll hear it in the morning.

    Yea, you could turn it off, or you could simply put it in another, inconvenient room.

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