Bliss and Bravery

Written by Chloe

I'm not too late for confessional, am I? Because our Sundays have been taken over by football. And our evenings have included a lot of television. And both of those have sometimes meant a laptop or smartphone out at the same time. Electronics have outnumbered the people in the room.

The truth is, I have a really hard time with being away from the distraction of media.

We've talked a lot in this space of 'unplugging.' But the difficulty in this is that it requires us to plug in, to completely engage in real life. And engaging in what you really love without distraction is weird. Counter-cultural, even.

When my family is unplugged I have nothing to keep me from facing our reality.

My husband has dreams that are bigger than a 9-to-5 job.

My political views make me uncomfortable with the Big Bank that holds our mortgage.

I often choose to shop a large retailer instead of a mom-n-pop.

I spend a lot more time reading about other people pursuing their goals than I do actually working toward my own.

Unplugging makes me uncomfortable because I long for a life completely different from the one I find myself leading.

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” -Joseph Campbell

This late fall and early winter, you’ll find me attempting to follow my bliss:

• I am turning off the computer and lowering our grocery budget.
• I am spending less time on blogs and more time in books.
• I am finally reading my camera’s manual.

Those sound so exciting to me. Life is easier in bullet points, I think. But the heart of the matter is that those bullet points are paving the way for the really hard Unplugged Reckoning at our house.

By limiting my aimless online time, I am hoping to work out the logistics of a big move. From the suburbs to a rural lot. From a mortgage with a company I loathe to a very small rent check that we pay to a man who lives in our community. Half of our current square footage. Four times the flexibility in our monthly budget.

This move, one that we already know some of our closest friends and family do not understand, will require me to be the bravest I have ever been. And this bravery has been brought on by unplugging from normal and plugging in to my bliss.

How could taking Unplugged time help you to follow your bliss?

In Memory of Austin James

Last week Chloe wrote about being moments away from welcoming her first child into the world. She was naturally excited and exuded such beautiful new mama energy. 

This morning we learned from Chloe and her husband Daniel, that their sweet baby, Austin James, sadly passed away before he had the chance to be born. 

It doesn't seem fitting to post according to schedule this morning. Instead, we are holding this space for Chloe, Daniel and baby Austin... as a place to collect loving thoughts that may offer a bit of comfort during this difficult time. 

Flavors of Fall

Written by Chloe

Summer days are long and busy with all those extra hours that the sun shines, and I eagerly anticipate the break that comes with cooler temperatures and earlier sunsets.This year, though, Autumn has given my neck of the woods a rain delay. The equinox has come and gone. Mother Nature seems to have missed the memo.

Even the early mornings have been thick with humidity and unseasonably warm. Apple picking has been rained out. Kale and cabbage are planted along my front walk, but which plants are really happy with the weather?

Whenever it arrives, autumn will go by even more quickly than normal in my house. Any day now, my family will be launched into parenthood with the arrival of our first baby. I know a birthday this time of year will only make our subsequent autumns sweeter, but it's warm and wet now and I found myself desperate to have a little (manufactured) fall of my own.

Enter pumpkin bread. A sweet bread is a pretty rare treat for us. After a little indulgence while still warm from the oven, I froze individual slices.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread 
(modified from Tammy’s Recipes)

Bread Ingredients:

3⁄4 C demerara sugar or sucanat 
1⁄4 butter, softened 
1 egg 
3⁄4 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree 
Juice of 1 orange 
Zest of 1 orange 
1 1⁄2 cups white whole wheat flour 
3⁄4 teaspoon baking powder 
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda 
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

Glaze Ingredients:

1⁄4 cup powdered sugar 
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Instructions:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter, egg, pumpkin, orange juice, and orange zest. Set aside. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients. Pour pumpkin mixture into bowl with dry ingredients, and stir until no lumps remain. 
3. Lightly grease and flour a loaf pan. (This recipe makes one 8x4 loaf) 
4. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick or fork (should come out clean) 5. Remove bread from pan and place on a wire rack to cool. While cooling, mix powdered sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add just enough maple syrup to make a glaze. Poke tops of bread with a fork or toothpick, and drizzle the glaze over the warm bread.

Is your Autumn coming along slowly, too? 


Once we get those cool, crisp mornings I think a piece of spicy, toasted bread with hot coffee or tea will be the perfect way to greet the newly changed leaves.

Create Your Own Style of Unplugging

Written by Chloe

When Heather first introduced me to Unplugged Sunday I fell in love. A family together. Those lovely photos. Their out-of-doors passion a seriously central part of their lives.

And I tried it.

But I am contending with a thirty-one-weeks pregnant belly and temperatures in the nineties. Some seasons of life just don't lend themselves to day-long hikes, do they?

The desire to have a pause in my week resonated with me. Instead of loading up a podcast for my morning walk, I left the cords at home. We live in the suburbs, but I've seen chipmunks scurry under bushes, I've heard squirrels duke it out twenty feet above my head and I've seen birds enjoy the first warm sun of the day.

At lunchtime I turn off the overhead lights and light a few candles. I take the time to sit down at the table. And use a real plate. Flowers have even made an appearance occasionally over the last few weeks.

At first, I felt as if I needed to justify my version of Unplugged Sunday. It was far from feeling like Walden Pond Sunday after all. I paid my almost forgotten copy of Thoreau a visit. Turns out he needed an Unplugged time from his cabin, too! Trips to the village of Concord every few days and hosting friends and travelers from time to time.

It was through this tacit approval from Mr. Thoreau himself that I realized that there is no perfect Sunday. The phrases that Heather placed into my vocabulary months ago resurfaced:

On this path no effort is wasted,

no gain is ever reversed;

even a little of this practice

will shelter you from great sorrow.

- Bhagavad Gita

It may not be practical for me, in this moment, to spend a day on the trail. But my unplugged practice provides guideposts I can build off of as my desire for time away grows.

How can ‘a little of this practice’ be incorporated into a busy day?

Turn off the computer, walk away. 

• Even if you work in a computer-driven environment, a fifteen minute break seems much longer and more refreshing if you use it to engage in something other than a mindless checking of email. Could you tuck a journal and colored pens or pencils into your desk drawer and doodle instead?

Leave the cell phone at home. 

• Or at least away from the dinner table. If you are with your significant other or immediate family, nearly every possible incoming call can wait. How much could your evening meal change if no one touched their phones for thirty minutes? One hour?

Make a little green space. 

• Even if your home doesn’t have a yard and your workplace doesn’t allow for a picnic lunch, could you have a fluorescent-light friendly African violet or succulent in a space you visit often? Would a small scented candle make it easier to spend ten minutes before bed unwinding with a book?

If you, too, are in a season of life where a dedicated unplugged day doesn’t seem to make sense, would you share with me the ways you are personalizing the practice? Even fifteen minutes at a time?