I told Mr. FixIt yesterday that I want to go camping…right now. And I don’t want to come back till February. I don’t want a TV or a radio. I don’t want the Internet. I want my iPad and the ability to write and post essays to my blog everyday. But I don’t want anything else but peace.

I simply must find a way to stop getting sucked into the stories that upset me. I read an article warning against “doom-surfing”…getting on the internet and reading one bad thing after another till you’ve gone so far down the rabbit hole, it’s hard to find your way back. I tell myself, I’m being a concerned citizen. That I need to remain informed on current affairs. And, overall that is true. But, where I fall off the wagon is reading all the drama surrounding it.

I have sworn I won’t rant about politics on my page. Then, I wake up and look at my phone and see a trigger story. Before I know it, I’ve shot off my mouth and I haven’t even had coffee yet. I have a wonderful reader/friend who has been around the entire time I’ve been writing this blog. We have become good friends and have had lunch together when we were both visiting Denver. She commented so delicately…just one sentence…and it snapped me out of it. I wrote her a private message and thanked her for throwing me a line. 

There are lots of things I can do to improve this world, but ranting on Facebook isn’t one of them. It gives people the wrong idea of the kind of person I am. And face it…do you really think that off-the-charts meltdown you’re having on social media is going to change anyone’s minds of you?

I have seen some responses from people on my side of the fence and I cringe when I read them. I mean, I totally understand where they’re coming from, but I cringe, nonetheless. The last couple of days, I’ve been trying to really cut back on “doom-surfing”. I look at this picture and really, really wish we were there…away from all this angst. 

Since it’s impossible to go live on a mountaintop till February, I’m going to have to come up with diversionary tactics. I’m going to start setting a timer when I get on the internet and stop looking when the time is up. So far, that app that tells me how long I surf online has done nothing but shame me for wasting so much time. Perhaps a timer will be more useful. 

I did get a couple new baking books. I’m returning one because I didn’t realize when I ordered it that’s it’s for professionals working in bakeries and restaurants. The recipes make huge amounts and it’s just the two of us. (Although, I did send a loaf of sourdough bread to Daughter #1 for their wedding anniversary dinner.) I have mastered sourdough. Now I think I’ll try baking a nice brioche.

❤️

“He was painfully abused, but he did not complain. He was silent like a lamb being led to the butcher, as quiet as a sheep having its wool cut off.”

Isaiah 53:7 CEV