Disconnect, Disengage

We are just back from 4 days in Batam for our church's annual conference. It's only been 4 days, but it feels much longer than that because it's been the first time in the long while that I was almost completely disconnected from the internet for days at a stretch.

Why this happened certainly wasn't planned.

On the night before we left, I grabbed at my phone in the dark after putting Nomi to sleep, and... it fell to the floor. It's not like this hasn't happened before, so I wasn't too concerned. Except. This time when I picked it up, the screen was blue.

Yes, the blue screen of death also haunts iPhones, if you're not careful.

My heart sank. After some desperate attempts to restart it and more even more desperate googling, I realised that the LCD was wrecked. The phone seemed to be working fine, but because I couldn't see a thing on the screen, it was effectively useless. We were to report at the ferry terminal at 9.30am in the morning so there was no way I was going to be able to bring my phone down to the service centre on time before leaving for Batam. I reached for the old 3GS but because the 4S uses a micro-sim, I couldn't use it. On hindsight, I probably should have spent some time googling how to re-size a micro-sim to fit a full sized sim-card slot. I have since found some instructions on how do just that. 

But on Monday night, with packing still yet to be completed, I was resigned to not having a phone throughout my time away. Not that I was about to give up my internet habit quite so easily at that time though. I was informed that the hotel provided free wifi, so I lugged along my iPad and my Macbook, thinking that I could log on when I had some free time in the room.

It seems however, that God had other ideas.

While the hotel did provide free wifi, I found that it really only worked in the common areas. After I found myself standing at the door to my room and sticking my iPad out into the corridor to try to get a connection, I decided to take the hint. I put aside my devices and stopped trying to get online. The funny thing is that DD tells me he had no trouble getting online with the iPad while in the room, so I think that it was me that God just really didn't want online! 

Disconnecting and being virtually uncontactable took a bit of getting used to. It was more than just cutting back, which I consciously make an effort to do most days. I hated not being able to snap and post on Instagram on the go and I kept wondering if I was getting new e-mails and missing tweets. But thankfully, I got over it pretty quickly. By the time the conference ended, I pretty much didn't care any more that I had no phone. Instead, I found that I enjoyed the change of pace. 

So in a way which I didn't intend, I got a good break. I did more reading, talked to those around me, and spent more time just stoning. I probably needed it.

Now that I'm back, I'm wondering if I can engineer more situations where I put away the phone for an extended period. Because sometimes I think having that time to just stop and stare, rather than share and share is a good thing too.