Serene Travels: Leaving the Laptop Behind

I just returned from New York - I'd been hankering for an autumnal fix for a while. So I hopped on a plane for meetings with colleagues and dinner with old friends. I hit up many of my favorite old haunts and walked down memory lane. 

Then I'd shed a tear because Lordy, that city changes with a blink of an eye. The cute bakery - gone! The empty lot - now a swanky high rise! The only certainty in life is change, right guys?

New York is an inspired place. Dreamers and seekers set their sights on it. Wanna be starlets arrive on a mission to find fame and fortune on the Great White Way. Ambition is in the air and it quickens everyone's pace. How many stories - throughout our country's history - have been set in New York? Too many to count. It is not only a setting but also a character. Songs and novels, films and plays, paintings and architecture -- artistry of every form finds New York its muse.

The New York Public Library. Main Branch.

Admittedly: I'm biased. It's often my muse too. Unabashedly I can say, it takes my breath away.

I really leaned into the romance of it this week. My schedule was packed, but I managed to pack it tight with New Yorky events and activities. After my morning meetings I went to MoMa, I went to a musical, I strolled the farmers' market and watched the parade pass by. I even tip-toed into the library's Main Branch and gazed upon its grandeur. I needed the rejuvenation. I needed to daydream. Those needs of mine are met in New York.

Daydreaming is definitely part of my approach the the art of simple, stylish living. It's a requirement for writing (or at least that's what I tell myself). But whether one is a writer or not, we all need those moments of rejuvenation, don't you think? When we step away from our normal routines, get outside ourselves -- and take a breath. However, the world I awake to every day? That world is full of distractions. So to rejuvenate, stepping away from those distractions is essential. 

I didn't bring my laptop.  

And in its place, I packed a novel.

I know, I know. Again, I remind you, it's not brain surgery over here at A Serene Space. But sometimes I find that the teeniest of trades make for the largest of dividends. 

My laptop is my life force in many ways. I don't like being away from it for too long. Not joking. It's an appendage. And that belief system can be a problem. Because, believe it or not, an electronic device is not an appendage. You heard it here first.

In addition to the theater and the museum, the restaurants and the parks, I brought a novel whose storyline is set in New York. Is there anything better than reading about a place in that very place?

So when plans changed, as they inevitably do, I tucked the book under my arm and found a little nook to read in. I'd pull it out on the subway or in the park, while waiting for a friend or sipping some coffee. The digital detox created a serene space for me to daydream. 

I lost myself in its story, as I am want to do with any good piece of fiction. It reminded me of days gone by - those early years in New York when everything was new and exciting, when every exchange felt as if it sprung from a novel or magazine. Those days were romantic, all of them. And exciting. I lived my life as if walking through a daydream. It's a wonderful thing, to be young, the whole world so full of promise. 

I came home rejuvenated. And I didn't missed my laptop. Not one little bit.