My Social Media-less Life

One of the things I am reminded of every time I go to the mountains is to just relax and be. With our now-annual girls trips and the annual women’s conference, sometimes the desire to do things starts to become overwhelming for me.

I can’t speak for anyone else, and that’s fine, because this is not their blog. 😛

Therefore, part of the reason I enjoy going to the mountains is so I can be reminded that it is in fact, okay if I’m not constantly doing something.

Lately, I think that’s part of my struggle with writing. It’s almost more a state of being than a state of doing. And that may not be true for every writer, but it is for me.

“You’re telling me I have to sit still and WRITE until I get to the end of a thing? How long is that going to be? Can I just find something else to do instead?”

Even in the complaining, the word is there: DO.

One of the things I desperately tried to make a part of my life during the dark days of 2020 (you know what I mean) was to Sabbath. And during that time, making Sabbath a part of people’s lives was almost a trend. I heard the saying: “If you work with your mind, Sabbath with your hands. If you work with your hands, Sabbath with your mind.”

So I tried. I did very little on the appointed day, except color and listen to music. I called it my “Sabbath music.” It was just 80s pop, but at the time that wasn’t my preferred genre of music. But coloring is not an overly hands-on thing… at least not like cleaning.

My new lifestyle lasted three weeks.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but the biggest one was that I was just too afraid to actually slow down and take a breather. “Well, if I slow down then I have time to think and if I have time to think then I’m going to think about the state of the world and if I do that, I might just get even more angry and then what good is a Sabbath if I’m mad all the time?”

2025 Erica would tell 2020 Erica that whole mind-spiral is a bunch of nonsense because the point of Sabbath, outside of resting is thanking God for all that He’s done. It is literally just being in the presence of the Lord and thanking Him for His faithfulness.

That’s not to say that the above mind-spiral isn’t or wasn’t a valid concern, but it’s a concern for the other six days of the week. Resting is not wrong. In fact, resting is very Biblical.

Plus, everything functions better with a good day off.

Sometimes, that’s why I like pet-sitting. Needing to go back to where the pets are makes it very easy to simply say “no” to potential plans and I usually get more crafty things done while pet-sitting because well, I need to be with the pets.

The flip side for someone like me is that I tend to get cooped up very easily and suddenly I need to leave the house or I might have some random meltdown because I don’t want to be by myself.

Did you catch that thought too? (I’ll show you…)

On top of learning to rest more and looking for more opportunities to take more days off, I’ve also been learning that the “being” part of “human being” also means I need to be okay with being in my feelings from time to time. I don’t usually cry when I’m in my feelings. I just do what I call a Big Sad and it’s just a way for me to vent to the Lord (and my best friends). I don’t usually need anything done; I just need to know that people are nearby in the event that my emotions do involve crying.

Since I don’t cry often, I have a tendency to document when I do because that means my Big Sad was even bigger than I realized and I just want my friends to know whatever I cried about is something I could become more emotional about in the near future. It’s weird, but it’s what I’ve noticed about myself.

I said all that to say:

I have been memorizing (more slowly than I’d like) Psalm 16, but lately, the Lord has been reminding me of Philippians 4 instead. Which is fine, obviously… it’s all the Bible. But this is what the Lord has been reminding me of lately, from Philippians 4:11-13.

¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

It’s because He gives me strength that I can be content in anything.

So for now… Erica is learning how to rest a little more and simply be a child of the King of the Universe.