“A break from technology can help us to feel human again. And I’m pretty sure there’s still no App for that.” —Michael J. Chase Two weeks ago, I began a month-long vacation with my wife Kristina and my two children, Ava (14) and Dane (12). We piled into our 36-foot Allegro motorhome and headed out to our 60-acre ranch in Idaho. If you haven’t been to this part of the country, it’s basically in the middle of nowhere—no cell phone service and no internet access (at least for the first 14 days of our visit until our phone was installed and we set up our DSL.) That’s Dane cooling off in the mountain stream.This was a major transformation for me because whether I’m working or on vacation, the first thing I do in the morning is grab my iPhone and check my email (even though my out-of-office auto reply says otherwise.) I really had no choice this time but to surrender and endure a digital detox. Now as I look back, what a great experience it has been. I highly recommend that you give it a try and step away from all your devices and electronics—your cell phone, your internet and your email—for just a few days this summer. It can be life changing. For me, I released my grip on this digital compulsion and realized that the world wouldn’t come to an end if I didn’t answer that call or check the latest email. This life lesson has given me a chance to spend more time in the present moment and just enjoy the people and places around me…along with a couple of unexpected animals. Here’s Ava and Kristina riding our horses.The other night, we had a late-night awakening when our dog Olive started barking. We thought we were just getting another visit from one of the many wild critters that we encounter at the ranch (elk, deer, coyote, wolves, bears—you get the idea). When Kristina looked out over our deck, much to her surprise, she saw a dog sitting in the back of our John Deere Gator. We rushed downstairs (Our living quarters are above the barn which houses our two horses—ZuZu and Gunz) and found a very frightened and hungry border collie. And here’s our little friend Gus When we approached him, we noticed that he was wearing a tag that said his name was Gus. After a little investigating, we were able to call Guss family the next day and found out his real name was Cap. (He was wearing another dog’s collar.) The family told us that Gus/Cap had either jumped or fallen out of their truck while they were hauling cows. They had no idea where he was and were thrilled that we found him. The family said they’d call us back to make arrangements to pick up Gus, and we started worrying when we didn’t hear from them. It wasn’t until four days later, we learned that the family lost the cell phone with our number in it in the middle of a hay field and couldn’t call us. After four days of taking care of Gus, you can imagine how we were feeling. We all fell in love with this warm and affectionate dog. When the family finally called us, we decided to spend a little more time with Gus and volunteered to drive him back to his house. There were plenty of tears when we dropped Gus off about 90 minutes away. Needless to say, we are now looking for a border collie to add to our four-legged family. My best wishes, Reid Tracy CEO Hay House
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 17:39:57 +0000
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