How do you cope when you realise you have left your phone at home?

I took Mark for his Saturday swimming lesson this morning, with a plan to sit on the side and get on my phone, check Facebook, see how all the different debates are going with William Haines/Niall Robertson et al on my email, maybe do some work and read through some attachments that I hadn’t got around to reading. I sat back, reached into one pocket, another jacket pocket, my jeans, but the familiar rounded metal/rubber edges were not there. Deep concern….and then it hit me: Damon had been playing brick breaker and my phone was a mile away, in his hands, at my parents’ house. What if someone called me!?

After the shock waves had subsided, I realised this could be an interesting half hour…and that it was Saturday morning after all. I started to see the other people around me. I saw Mark with his woggle in the water kicking his legs energetically with the other kids. I saw the determination on his face, and sat back and started to take it all in. I didn’t know he had become that confident. I then spent a few minutes realising how much tension there was in my body, got in touch with some stressy, anxious emotions, kind of told myself I am doing ok, in a way that felt authentic, felt less tense, got a bit drowsy… and as a result, fell asleep for 10 minutes….zzzzzz

It’s amazing what I can do with my time when I am separated from technology for short spells. Real life is quite invigorating.

relaxturn off the fone

Dear sisters and brothers,

Recently we had an interesting experience. We had one couple for dinner who Simon had met recently based on having known one of them from when he was younger and them saying hello on Facebook.

They were very interested in how Simon met our Unification movement and he was talking about how he asked someone for directions in Manhattan and that person invited him to listen to a presentation about the Divine Principle. They kept saying what an amazing coincidence that was and how his life was destined to be the way it was. If Simon did not ask for directions at that moment to that particular person he and I might not be together and our family would not exist here. We really felt God speaking to us through them.

Very cheating stew

This is the menu I make when I do not have any desire to cook, but it still tastes like a 5 star meal. It is incredibly easy. Fry chopped casserole meat. Put them in a big pot. (I use a slow cooker and turn it on in the morning and set the timer for dinner.) Meanwhile make lots of gravy using something like Bisto gravy granules. Put the gravy in the big pot with a tin of chopped tomatoes (the quantity of chopped tomatoes can be same as gravy or less, depending on your taste.) Put chopped up root vegetables and simmer for a few hours. If you add bay leafs or other herbs it will make it taste much better. I normally add the potatoes in the last half an hour so that they do not get broken. I can’t believe I can make this nice taste using gravy powder.

Have a nice week.

Chieko