Burritos, Smiles, & Blue Sky: Tales of Unplugging

Last week there was a little lunch mix up at my house. We had leftover sausage, sauerkraut and roasted potatoes and I accidentally ended up with the spicy sausage instead of the mild. No big deal, so it’s a little spicy, I can handle that, right? (I mean I do order my wings with medium sauce!) Except there’s some spice in most hot sausage that makes my chin and face turn bright red. Since I had two classes to teach that afternoon I decided it was best not to chance it.

Which meant I headed outside to one of my favorite food carts. Since I was just ducking out for a quick minute, I took my wallet with me, but nothing else. And by nothing else, naturally I mean, I didn’t take  my phone.

So there I was, standing in the middle of campus while my grilled cheese grilled with nothing to do except look at the world around me. I saw a professor holding class outside, complete with take-out burritos for everyone (outside AND burritos, probably should have held that awesome-ness for later in the semester my friend, how exactly are you going to top that?). There was sunshine and blue sky. The colleague from upstairs in my building chatting like old friends with the man at the gyro cart. There were people to smile at and say hello to, and the smell of butter and cheese.

You know, I love that I can have coffee with my friend in Florida over Google chat and walk home with my friend in New York via iMessage. When my husband travels for work I love seeing his face at night and it’s more than amazing to see pictures of my god-daughter in England. But here’s what I remembered that day — every now and then, I need to disconnect. Put my phone away wherever I am, and simply (in the words of Jim Elliot) be all there.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy burritos for my class …