Life With Out News

 

It seems that I have been traveling a lot over the course of the past few months.  One of the things I’ve noticed is how little I heard the news. The people I was staying with didn’t watch the news. If it hadn’t been for the Washington Post updates on my blackberry, I wouldn’t have had a clue to the latest disaster or crisis. We have developed a habit at our house to turn on the news every morning and every night.  I grew up listening to news radio, and after we got television, watched the 5 o’clock and 10 o’clock news.  I found myself wondering about Syria, the latest housing numbers, the results of the most recent political fall-out, the Penn State drama.  All the things that were in the headlines when I left home, I wondered about them, and I recognized how they had infiltrated my thoughts. For what purpose do I listen to the news?  Do I feel somehow more in control? Safer? Informed (which means what??)  The point is, that while all these events were going on around the globe, life at the ranch, life on the road, life at my friends’ home went was not overtly impacted.  We talked about things that were relevant to our daily and local life.  I don’t feel those I was with didn’t care about world events, rather attention was given to the life they could have an impact on-immediately. It’s just that focusing on that news is one more way I avoid living in the present moment.  It’s one more way I being present with myself, living in my own life.  I avoid my issues, my responsibilities and my purpose.  I hadn’t realized how much my energy was drained and distracted by all the watching and reading.

I’m traveling again.  I’ll have another week without easy access to the news.  I intend to take it in and know myself better!