Vacationing without My Cell Phone

While we were in the mountains of Tennessee last Friday {a week and two days ago}, my cell phone was fried while using a generic charger.

Oops.

Trying to save money gave us a bite back when my phone took a major hit.

There's absolutely no way to salvage it.

Gratefully hubster had his phone, so not the end of the world by any means. There are bigger issues in the world, most definitely.

As we drove back roads an hour between two cities for our niece's rehearsal dinner in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park... we saw a lot of rundown homes. It was a bit of culture shock. There was a lot of poverty. Many shacks. Many mobile homes that were barely even standing.

And here I was fighting to get my cell phone working again.

One week without a cell phone and I can say it's had quite an impact on me. Social media withdrawal did occur, despite having my laptop and iPad with me, because in some ways I wanted to utilize the chance to take a clean break.

I'd already decided I was not going to check work emails at all, and only occasionally checked personal emails. But Instagram? Facebook? That was asking a lot of me.

It turns out... I couldn't have appreciated the break more. God knew I needed it.

There were no taking selfies. So hard.

No sharing of what I was doing at any given moment. So hard.

Not waiting to see what people said in response to my pictures and thoughts. So hard.

And so, so, so, so good.

Soaking in the moments. Just taking it all in. Breathing. Getting refreshed.

Praying. Spending time with the Lord. Focusing on our son. Being with my husband. Celebrating the finest little moments. Not trying to get pictures at every.single.moment.

Not wondering what others might say about a photo that I couldn't take anyway.

A {mostly} clean break.

It was so refreshing and just what my soul needed.

Once we got back home, not having my phone became a major pain, because not being around hubster 24/7 meant no access to his phone. No calling him after leaving my doctor's appointment Friday morning, no texting when we were leaving work or picking up Elijah when we were back to normal on Thursday.

But Saturday came. And we got a new phone for me. It was such a huge relief.

Perspective sunk in though as I thought about all those across the world struggling for simple things like clean water and shelter.

I want to continue to think about and pray for them, to do what I can, and to not let my phone get me sucked back into too much social media, comparisons, and discontentment.

In retrospect, it truly was just what I needed. And I don't want to forget the experience and all that it taught me.