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Poppy wants to live in a world where everyone's story matters, regardless of their income or way of life.

As a photographer, she's won ribbons at the county fair. As a spiritual seeker and writer, she's been featured in Jen Louden's The Life Organizer and once published an article at allthingsgirl.net.

When she's not writing or photographing her story, she can be found at her day job as a technology consultant, or at home snuggling her cats, or in the park, taking a walk with her husband.

Moving On

Moving On

Poppy Lochridge

Every day for what remained of Lent - since I posted approximately the first three weeks, that’s about 20 days, or the second half of Lent - I did the following:

  • Got up in the morning, turned a light on, and read the word of the day

  • Carried the word gently in my heart to my journal

  • Went about my already scheduled freaking out

The words I did not post about were:

JUSTICE
STRUGGLE
FIRE
TRUST
INSPIRATION
SUPPORT
LOVE
REACH
RAIN
CONFESSION
ACCEPTANCE
FORGIVENESS
AWE
MERCY
CRY
BLOOM
RESILIENCE
TRANSCEND
GRATITUDE
ANTICIPATION
REJOICE

Regarding the experiment of being off of Facebook for the 6 weeks of Lent - that was a worthy experiment. I’ve learned in the process that social media as it is performed in this day and age creates a false urgency, a particular speed, at which deep thought is not possible. Living with social media as a constant presence creates sort of a dull roar of superficial thoughts, which drown out any new, creative thinking.

So what did I do, without Facebook for 6 whole weeks? I read a lot of e-books, and spent some time diving into mysticism and mystic experiences. I’ve been searching for answers to PRESENCE and IMMANENCE, neither of which can be found in books. (But OH I tried.) And I spent a lot of time working with the awareness of what it means to be lonely.

I wrote to myself, a week into my experiment, that I had started noticing my brain unwinding a little, that my attention was subtly better. I also noticed that I wasn’t exactly standing around wondering what to do with my time, without Facebook to fill it. My note says: I initially thought I was filling the gaps and avoiding something, but it might just be that my life is very full and I didn’t actually have room for all of the information I was taking in.

Fasting from Facebook didn’t produce the authentic connections that I’ve been needing. I realized partway in that removing something can eliminate fake connections, but it can’t build good ones. For all that, I started feeling like I’d finally given myself a reprieve from something which had started to feel like watching a much more popular person next door throw a party to which I was not invited. Abstaining started feeling less like going indoors so I didn’t have to watch, and more like moving house entirely.

I haven’t re-enabled my Facebook account, and I’m not sure I’m going to. That’s not a decision I have to make right now. All I have to do right now is the next right thing - and that is putting on my shoes and taking a bit of a walk in the sun.

Week 3

Week 3