Off the grid…!

From Tuesday 3 December until Thursday 12 December I will be off the technological communication grid!

There will be no tweets, no likes, no posts, no blasts, no emails, no texts, no phone calls.

It’s my birthday hiatus…, in the form of a cruise ship, plus a few days with a good friend in Ontario before embarking on my voyage.

For eight blissful days the beautiful Carnival Splendor will be my home as we sail from New York to the Bahamas and the only mode of communication for me will be to actually talk to other humans!

What?! Imagine! 🙂

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still taking a whole lot of technology with me – I couldn’t live without it, it’s true! I love my electronic stuff. And I will spend a good amount of time either reading or writing on one or more of those items daily. I’m merely disconnecting those devices from all things Ethernet, Data plans, and Wi-Fi.

No communication with the outside world.

I feel that it’s nice leaving those modes of communication behind for a few days so I can re-learn to connect with people one-on-one.

Verbal communication is a skill I have not honed as well as the written word. I am much more comfortable in writing than I am in person. The fact that I can edit what I’ve written plays an enormous part in that!

I can be a little bit shy when meeting people for the first time, perhaps even awkward at times…I hope endearingly!

Last year I took a cruise for the first time alone and I felt a little nervous about how I was going to interact with people on board. But what I found was conversing with people I didn’t know was relatively easy because we were all there for the same reason…fun, relaxation, time-out from our daily lives…and it gave us common ground.

We got to experience the beauty of our current surroundings, share stories about excursions that people were taking, experiences on the ship, and the other places we’d travelled. We got to experience these things together. Dreams, adventure, travel, goals, achievements, and all things Love. Well within my comfort zone, and nice to hone those skills of verbal communication.

I even made a few new life-time friends. 🙂

It felt good to connect with a range of different people and learn a about the best of their lives. That’s the thing about travel; people take a break from their creaks and groans too. It feels like we all put our best foot forward talking about what we love about our lives rather than what could be better. I felt invited to be the best of myself.

I wonder why I ever feel the need to be invited?

I should invite myself to be the best of me every day. That the experience made me ask this question is the greatest gift.

So, thank you for reading. Thank you for following. Please accept this as a heads up that I will not be posting until December 12, 2013.

(Note: I realize I could have scheduled a post to go out while I’m away, but doing that felt a little impersonal to me at this point in time).

Have a wonderful few weeks!

Warm smiles and Love,

Ali Jayne 🙂