The Red, White, and Green

Photo via Flickr: ((Brian))

By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way up the West Coast of the United States for an 11-day trip to celebrate my birthday. And while I won’t be leaving the country save for a brief jaunt in Vancouver, I’m going to do what is pretty much now unfeasible for most email/Facebook/Twitter-reliant Americans: take a self-imposed technology break.

I know there will be opportunities galore for an environmental blogger such as myself to communicate about — hiking excursions in national parks, ecologically rich coastal wetlands, the Granville Island Public Market — but I can’t help but feel that ever since I got my BlackBerry, I can’t fully appreciate these types of experiences with constant updates from the outside world. It’s a cliche, but life just moves so darn fast now. And here’s another cliche, but I think more of us would be even more committed to the environmental issues we’re all working so hard to solve if we just took the time to stop — really stop — and smell the roses. It’s not enough to blog about saving our forests; sometimes you have to actually go see those forests.

It might be my birthday that’s making me nostalgic for the simpler world I remember from my childhood — the one where you got to truly relax with friends and family on the weekends without feeling the need to check Huffington Post for updates or respond to text messages every five minutes. All I know is, when I spent several days in Northern Wisconsin earlier this summer, where there wasn’t cell phone or internet service and I had to hike to the lodge every few days to check my email, it was probably the most blissful five days I’ve had in the past seven years (minus my honeymoon in Italy!).

So I hope you’ll understand if I miss any breaking environmental news for the next week or so. Articles will still be published, thanks to the technological marvel of advance scheduling. I promise to share the highlights of my trip when I return.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Studies say that taking the time to relax and enjoy nature is essential to good health. And you don’t have to go on an 11-day trip to take your own technology break, either: This weekend, turn off your computer/BlackBerry/iPhone and vow not to check your email or the internet till Monday morning.

Related post:
Taking time to hug some trees

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