There is beauty to be found here.

a view of Gaston Street in Savannah, GA

An epiphany was had this weekend.

There is beauty to be found here.

HERE, wherever "here" is for you.

For me.

The world around us rages and it seems that everywhere we turn there's bad news, dreadful photographs and ugly language seeping into our memories and consciousness.

There have been times when I've found myself raging, seething to escape the confines of strangers, strangers who cut me off from my present. My selfish present. My consciousness became toxic from constant exposure to the traps of social media.

Have you ever gone away from it? Unplugged from the constant updates of everyone else's lives? I've stopped blogging before but I realized that wasn't unplugging for good. It was removing myself from a creative community and each time I've done it, I've faded.

No, I'm talking about FBook. Perhaps I'm being oversensitive. I am the happy owner of a hyper-sensitive personality. Oh joy; we take up only 1% of the population. It's not easy being green. It's not self-preservation, well, not JUST. It's a preservation of the beauty that is always around us.

Yes, Dear Reader, there is BEAUTY around us. Always around us. Sometimes you just have to look harder, find the microcosm that is easily missed.

As of this morning, I'm not existent on FBook any more. At least for a while. It may be permanent. My only hesitation of the forever is I have friends there who aren't involved in blogging or on Instagram. Why Instagram? Because it's a celebration of the lovely. It's easier to find others who want to paint the world a better place with joy and gardens and positivity. 

Am I avoiding "real life"? Not at all! Walking away from virtual anger is walking into the waking realm around us. Oddly enough, I feel I've just woken from a long, strange dream. The scrolling stopped and I felt lighter. A beautiful lightness of being. I wasn't on FBook terribly often, but I realized last night that I would suddenly have a lot more time. If I have more time, I wonder about the other hours flitted away by others who are there more and more often.

I'm not condemning social media. I'm a blogger and I post pictures of my cat on Instagram. It's a wonderful form of communication and connection. There are people in my family I've reconnected with and stay in touch with in ways I wasn't able to before. But, for now, I'm here in the blogverse, I'm on Instagram, and I'm out THERE. 

In the great, wide wonder of reality with hopes of better fueling myself to create my own!

TELL ME:

Have YOU ever removed yourself from Social Media? What about those of you who AREN'T on FBook? Who have permanently removed yourselves from it? Did you feel freer, less constrained by the whims of others? If you've never been a part, why not? 

Happy Week, Friends!