Today … a challenge for you. Do yourself a favor this week and leave your phone at home. Just try it! Choose a time when your kids will be okay (maybe they have the number of someone else they can call in case of emergency) , your boss or colleagues won’t need you (you are not working all the time, are you?) and your friends or family won’t be texting as much (they are okay to wait a few hours for your opinion on their new love affairs or for you to commiserate over something crazy that happened in their day). Leave your phone at home!

I challenge you to do this because it is something I have been doing more and more and it is quite freeing! It has changed my ability to be in the moment in a very positive way. It’s not about changing your reliance on technology. This is the technological trajectory our lives are on these days and there is no reason to fight it. Our phones are a part of our daily lives and that is okay. It’s great even! Instead of fighting technology (if you even have the urge to do so as I do), find a way to use the technology in a style that works for you!

That said, I tell you to try to leave your phone at home because you deserve some time in your day, every now and again, where you are not distracted. You deserve an hour or two where you are not looking at your phone to see who needs what or looking at Instagram to see who is doing what. Take the time you deserve and every now and again. Leave your phone at home!

I’ve taken to leaving my phone at home in the evenings when I go out. If I am going to meet a friend for a drink, I leave it. If I am going out to dinner with my sweetheart, I leave it. If I am going to some kind of family gathering, I leave it. It has been a very happy and balancing new choice in my life.

Leaving my phone is a dedication to be in the moment. It’s my pledge to my sweetheart, or the friends I’m going out with, that I am there to be with them! These are the hours I have set aside just for them. Feels so right. Why am I writing about phones while showing you photographs of food, you ask? These photographs are from a BBQ I had at my house for my family this past weekend. Beautiful Maine farmer’s market food … I love these days. Maybe that is why I am writing about phones and showing you photographs of food. I’m reminding myself, and perhaps you if you are still reading, that these are the days we should treasure. These are the days of our lives. Times together. Moments of pause. Incredible chaos. Hugs and kisses. We don’t need our phone for times like these … we just need to be here now.

—MAV