05/27/2026
I forgot my phone over Memorial Weekend.
I realized it about 40 minutes from home – too far – we were not going back. So, I did what most of us do when something uncomfortable happens… I tried to convince myself it wasn’t a big deal.
I thought about it often, but each time I let the thought pass. Almost like meditation — except instead of clearing my mind, I was disconnecting from the constant tether.
I spent the weekend sitting around a fire table listening to rain fall while laughing with family. I watched my daughter and her cousin run through the house spreading laughter wherever they went. We cooked together, cleaned together, ate giant meals together, and spent hours around board games.
I already consider myself a present person. I would have participated in all those same moments if my phone had been with me.
But I also would have been partially somewhere else.
*Half-listening while checking notifications.
*Half-engaged while searching for answers.
*Half-resting while consuming more information.
The experience reminded me how dependent we have become on staying connected at all times. Not because we want to be distracted, but because distraction has quietly become the default.
The most important moments happen in conversations around a table, in shared laughter, in rainy weekends with family, and in the small memories children carry with them long after they grow up.
Sometimes we think we forget something important.
Sometimes the important things are already right in front of us.
