Quiet Time

hubby and i have been pondering, discussing, meditating, talking some more about a need we have in our lives. we had put it off for as long as we could, then we put it off some more. we talked about the pros and cons, we talked about the financial benefits, but when it came right down to doing it, we procrastinated. until last monday. that's when i finally told him, "ok, i'm going down to our cable co and disconnecting the cable!" ugh we are now in tv-less netherland. we get no channels right now. we could get one or maybe two if we disconnected the actual cable to our tv and hooked up the antenae, but with a move this summer it seems hardly worthwhile.

now before anyone rushes out to send us a 3 mo free package to cableland, this really is a good decision. it is saving us 40+ dollars a month, the tv stays off unless we are intentionally watching a movie together as a family, and its reminding us that there are alot of other things to do during the spring and summer.

we have gone without cable several times during our married life, we have even gone without having a tv in house in our first few years of marriage. we have fond memories of those times, times where hubby and i played games after dinner everyday, lots of time to read, taking walks around the n'borhood or around walking trails at parks nearby or farther away.

on the downside, we are suffering withdrawls from the lack of tv news. there is no substitute! the last time we went cable-less was during the katrina catastrophe, and we had no clue as to what people were talking about. we could not fathom why everyone was in such a tizzy over it. last nite, for the first time in too long, i cuddled with my son to get him to sleep and he had no boring news to put him to sleep. but you know what? he fell asleep anyway! and it didn't take an undue amount of time.

what i've noticed in only a few days without cable is that our home is awfully quiet without the tv on. i do listen to talk radio in the mornings and have some noise. tuesday hubby was home studying and it was quiet, way too quiet! no noise whatsoever. i hadn't realized how i had become accustomed to having something to fill our home. it made me think of those who lived 100 or 200 years ago. with no tvs, no radios, no phones, how quiet their lives must have been. if they had children who were home, then of course there would be noise, but what of the grandparents who lived alone, or the single people. no wonder there were quilting bees where women could get together and chat. where the men would go to the local store and stand around talking about the daily happenings. i think we have lost something since we have so much technology that brings into our homes what we use to have to seek out to find. as my hubby said, "it gives us a cheap substitute for fellowship". we hear people talking on the tv or the radio and we feel like we have connected somehow. but we haven't. i'm interested to see if i invest more into my real-life relationships ...