Manifesting the Sabbath

Those of you to whom I talk on Twitter, Facebook, email, etc., know that I’ve been keeping crazy hours lately. There’s just a lot going on and sometimes I need to catch up on work (that isn’t affected by when I do it) after hours.

The things I could tell you about the “6 week body” and isn’t Kevin Trudeau tired of being on TV only at 2 a.m.?

Not my preferred mode of work, believe me – I enjoy sleeping far too much, plus I think it’s an extremely bad practice to get into, especially in terms of setting others’ expectations of you.

Crisis communication may demand it, but if you’re in crisis mode every day… well, something needs to change.

At any rate

I was working on my deck yesterday (one of the perks of being my own boss), trying to move my Hopkins course along (my second year of teaching there! w00t!). During one of my self-imposed breaks, I found out that today is apparently the “national day of unplugging” from the Get Rich Slowly blog (love it, you should read it, because who doesn’t want to?), thanks to something called the “Sabbath Manifesto.”

Here’s what GRS says:

Yesterday on Twitter (ironic I know), I stumbled upon the Sabbath Manifesto. From the website, the Sabbath Manifesto is “a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world.” Perfect!

The Sabbath Manifesto encourages people to set aside one day a week to take a timeout from life. On this one day, you’re urged to:

1. Avoid technology.
2. Connect with loved ones.
3. Nurture your health.
4. Get outside. (Image: Michele Molinari, Creative Commons)
5. Avoid commerce.
6. Light candles.
7. Drink wine.
8. Eat bread.
9. Find silence.
10. Give back.

The Sabbath Manifest is co-ordinating a National Day of Unplugging. From sundown on March 19th to sundown on March 20th, we’re being called to turn off and unplug our gadgets to whatever degree we feel comfortable. This has the potential to benefit our selves, our relationships, our environment — and our pocketbooks.

Check out this video too.

Sometimes things just fall into place.

The day before yesterday, Sean Williams (whom I’m looking forward to meeting for the first time at IABC/Cleveland next week, are you coming? At least to the #shonalitweetup happy hour?) and I were bitching talking about being time management, etc., the way consultants do.

Yesterday my eyes felt like sandpaper, thanks to consecutive nights of 3-5 hours’ sleep.

Then I come across this post, as well as my friend (and client) Shashi Bellamkonda’s musings on whether the wi-fi on Amtrak’s Acela Express is going to be a good thing or bad thing (and let me tell you, when I used to do the weekly run up and down from NYC at my last job, the “quiet car” was a godsend).

So that’s it. I’m unplugging today (and you’re reading this post because I scheduled it, ha) barring any paperwork I have to take care of thanks to some really unethical person intercepting, stealing AND CASHING a client payment.

Other than that – no Tweeting, no Facebooking, no nothing. There might be wine, though I don’t know about the bread. Definitely candles.

There shall be space. And peace. And on Sunday, hopefully I will be refreshed enough to plow through another round of deadlines, and there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

You should do the same.

Happy unplugging!

Filed under Business, Personal | Tags: #shonalitweetup, get rich slowly, iabc/cleveland, sabbath manifesto, sean williams, shashi bellamkonda, unplugging | Comments (3)

Tweetup… A Pocketful of Rainbows

I told you a couple of days ago about #shonalitweetup that’s being organized around PRSA2009. Now I’m really excited that we’ve added another layer to what I know is going to be a great evening and will, I hope, help an extremely worthy fund raising effort meet its goal.

We’ve partnered with 12for12K to help one of its charities, Musicians on Call. If you’re active in the social media world, you’re already familiar with 12for12K and Danny Brown, the brains and passion behind it. If you’re not, you can learn more here and here.

So, in a nutshell, if we all give a little, we’ll be able to help some extremely worthy causes. $12K per charity sounds like an awful lot, but not if we all chip in $10, $20, whatever we can (and companies, you should be giving more!). Little drops of water, little grains of sand, etc.

All the charities that have been selected for 12for12K are worthy causes. Even if we haven’t lived in a war zone, been excruciatingly hungry, or have been blessed with keeping our vision, we can identify with those who have/do, have been/are, and haven’t/can’t. If you haven’t been touched by these issues directly, you have been, in some way, shape or form, indirectly.

When it comes to music, though, there is not a single person who has not been touched by it directly. Remember how excited I was to visit Graceland, or listening to/watching Adam Lambert? In other words, the soundtrack of our lives.

So please help Danny and his team support Musicians on Call. Here are some ways in which you can do this:

1. If you’re coming to #shonalitweetup, consider chipping in. Yes, the tweetup is still sponsored, thanks to PRNewswire, Mike Smith Public Affairs and dna13 (that means hosted beverages and pie aka pizza for a limited time, so that we don’t drink Bar Basic out of house and home). And you don’t have to chip in – but it would be so nice if you would.

2. Whether you’re coming to the tweetup or not, share this post and/or the link to its 12for12K page with your networks; Facebook, Twitter, even email… you know the drill. Oh, and how about embedding the donation widget on your blog?

3. If you really think this is a good idea, put the squeeze on people you can ask directly to chip in.

You, my community, have been very good to me – from egging me on when I started this blog a whopping 11 months ago, to helping me find Darby the GSD a home. I hope I’ve been good for you in some way too. Now let’s all be good for 12for12K and Musicians On Call.

One other thing – and this is very important – just because the tweetup is tomorrow night, we’re not going to stop trying to help there. 12for12K runs through the end of the year… so we have a few weeks to help them reach their goal. Let’s do it!

Can we help some very worthwhile causes find their pockets full of rainbows?

As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Psst, I downloaded MoC’s logo from their site, in case you want to do that as well).

Filed under Personal, Philanthropy, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter | Tags: #shonalitweetup, 12for12k, danny brown, elvis, jennifer wilbur, musicians on call, tweetup | Comments (5)