In the busy, high-tech world I live in, I frequently find comfort and joy in the simple things.  I am grateful for technology.  I am grateful for the ease and enjoyment it brings to my life. However, I find relief when I take a break from all the gadgets, the Internet, and last but not least, television. I frequently unplug to allow room for silence, peace, and fun.  Recently, I took a break to spend time with my boys and have some fun.  Hence, the mission was born to acquire a ping pong table and play some table tennis.  First, we had to find the right table.  Okay.  I used the Internet for this part.  Once the most ideal table was found, the challenge was to get it home and put it together.  Both required patience, time, and some very low tech tools.

To my dismay, it took more than a day to find, purchase, transport, and assemble a ping pong table.  This seemed like an eternity to me.  I wanted some technology to throw this thing together so I could get to the good part. After all, I am used to finding most everything within seconds or shooting off ten e-mails in the span of fifteen minutes.  I immediately noticed urgency and pressure from the internal message that informed me I needed to do this project much more quickly.  I was hearing that I needed to finish so I could move on to playing and ultimately, getting to my to do list, which seems to always be getting longer rather than shorter.  I felt frustration at not being able to hurry.  The ping pong table would not go together any faster than the amount of time it took to screw all the screws and to tighten all the bolts.  A lesson in mindfulness all by itself. [Read more...]