driving...

I forgot my phone at home today... by the time I figured it out, I was 20 miles away and in the middle of a delivery... not possible to go get it.

At first... there was a sense of panic. What if there's an emergency? What if I have a flat tire? What if something happens to a friend and they can't get ahold of me? The last is a legitimate concern. A couple of them are prone to assuming that anyone out of phone range is obviously lying in a crumpled broke pile in a ditch bleeding to death.

And what if I needed to call someone for work... Occasionally, on a delivery, I have to get in touch with someone for assistance. OK... about twice a month... but still, it happens...

But then, inexplicably, I felt a sense of calm come over me. I heard a voice in the back of my head say... "YOU"LL BE FINE"

Got a flat tire? Change it.
Someone can't get a hold of me? They'll call later.
I need to call someone for work? Find a pay phone or better yet... let the dispatcher call them.

I relaxed.

And I enjoyed it.

There's something amazingly and wonderfully liberating about not being at the planets beck and call. It's totally amazing how much the phone bleeping at you interferes with your day.

I drove around. I made my deliveries. I joked with warehouse guys, without having to worry about returning a text. I sang a whole bunch of songs I remembered. (This is actually almost a psychological breakthrough... I have major childhood traumas around singing... don't ask...) I had a great day.

It's true, when I walked into QT and they had 5 liter boxes of wine on sale for a buck... I'd gone in with the idea of buying a lotto ticket, but quite frankly, the odds are better on a box of wine... I really did want to send a message to a church guy. But I can text him later. Or maybe I'll have a glass or three of wine and not worry about it. Hard telling...

And when I had an hour without a delivery, I pulled out a pen and a piece of paper and started writing down an idea that had occured to me for a church devotional. (I sent in a couple during lent and they asked me to keep em coming... oh well...)

Don't get me wrong... I'm not going to start leaving the phone at home. There are legitimate reasons why I might need it on the road. But... I may be turning it off for long stretches of time.