It’s now been two months away from IG and FB! This post is a follow-up to my one-month off post. Here’s where I am with it now:
The addiction is still the phone
I’m doing better at putting it away, but I’m still on it more than I’d like to be.
I seriously struggle with consistency
In the last post, I mentioned needing routines. I know I do, because I suffer without ’em, but it’s so hard to stick to it. The slightest lil inconvenience or need for extra comfort and I’m off track until I feel like I’m losing my mind and remember that I’m simply off track.
Still studying though
Especially Wolof. I’m really enjoying my lessons although…whew! Degueula yombul wayé yalla bakhna! (It ain’t easy, but God is good.) I got the greetings and introductions and a few common phrases, like the one I shared above, and I’m ready to start holding short conversations. But I’m struggling. Fortunately, my tutors are kind enough to remind me that I just started a few weeks ago. I guess I figure since I caught on to the basics so easily, the rest should come just as easily. NOT!
Still writing more too
As a hired writer, it’s easy to put your own stuff on the back burner. These days, I’ve been doing a lot of journaling, still penpalling, and working on my own book proposal too. That feels so good, so right.
Still don’t miss it, but planning my return
Outta sight, outta mind. I ain’t even log in to check DMs this time. But I think I’m coming back next month. I’ll do my best not to let it run the show though. I don’t even wanna post often. Maybe once or twice a week and get on off. It’s so easy to get sucked in and lose track of time. I just don’t wanna fall back into that routine. I also plan to get the mailing addresses of folk I wanna connect with more deeply. One of my homegirls who I’ve known for about 10 years, we’d slipped into just swapping reels and whatnot, and nothing wrong with that, but since we started writing each other letters, our conversations go so much deeper. I have to remind her, though, that ain’t no rush to write me back. (She apologies for taking a while, which don’t even be feeling like a long time to me—like, at all.)
Getting all the spiritual signs
I’ma do a separate post about this, but it’s wild! For instance, a friend texted me and invited me to Riceboro to meet descendants of a maroon community from Colombia. I said yes. Hell yes, actually. Then I turned off my phone for the night, climbed in bed, opened The Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy Ansa to my bookmarked page, and three lines down the character shared that his parents were maroons in Florida. I slapped the book shut and stared at the ceiling. I was so tempted to turn my phone back on and share the moment I’d just had, but that’s another thing about backing away from the phone more…
Sitting with my thoughts/experiences more
I don’t just make a post out of it and imagine how I’m going to write my caption for it when I do. I was doing that last month, although I forgot to include it in the list. I was actually keeping a note in my phone about everything I wanted to post when I came back. I ain’t open that note in a while, thankfully. More than sharing it online though, I’d immediately wanna text a friend, my man, or my mom about it.
Ain’t nothing wrong with sharing. I still do. But I try to let it sit with me a bit longer before filling up tea cups. That’s what led me to the beach one morning. I woke up early. My routine said the gym. My spirit said the water. And I had a chance to watch the sun rise, so I went. And it was so beautiful and healing and I still got my work out in. After the sun rose, I walked the shoreline for almost an hour (and found beaucoup sand dollars).