Two weeks ago the family (including my mom) took a blissful 8 day vacation to St. Pete Beach, Florida.  This vacation was a long time coming – life had gotten crazy, we had a very up & down year and I really just hoped and prayed that we’d be able to “get away” this summer as a family.  Needless to say, God was good & we were able to plan this trip.  We were thrilled, too, that my mom was able to join us because let’s face, things are always better when “Mimi” is around!

On our way down to FL we decided to stop and spend the night in Macon, GA & upon getting out of the car I decided to take my beloved (and new) Sony Vaio out of my bag to “check” something online.  (Background – my laptop and I are together constantly – it’s where I do most of my work as a Beachbody coach AND let’s face it, who doesn’t use a laptop or iPad for just about everything anymore?)  I went to turn it on and…..nothing…..no lights, no screen….nothing.  I kept my cool thinking maybe it was just the battery & it needed to be plugged in (still weird because it had been closed up and shut down in my bag for all of those hours).  I didn’t start to really LOSE my cool until plugging the computer IN at our hotel room also resulted in NOTHING.  This is when things started to get REAL and I began to realize the gravity (or so I thought) of the situation.  MY COMPUTER WAS DEAD – I WAS TO HAVE ZERO “REAL” CONNECTION ALL WEEK LONG.  How would I survive?  Could I handle this?  I had to handle it.

And handle it, I certainly did!  While we all know that I could have done a lot of what I thought I needed to do on my phone OR even used my hubby’s laptop, I took this “challenge” to heart and really scaled back my “work-mode” and focused more on being present with my family and truly ENJOYING our vacation together.  Looking back now, I fear that I would have missed the dozens of dolphins that swam by or missed my daughter looking like this:

or this fabulous sunset:

if I had been staring at my computer.  So, stinky as it initially was, my computer breaking was definitely a blessing in disguise.

 While computers and technology are so important in our daily lives….do you “unplug” regularly and “connect” with those in your life who are most important?