Off Line

 

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This week I'll be off-line for a couple of days. For the month of June, both Rick and I've been locked on our laptops working on our respective books.

Our breaks have been a weekly Free Write, a doctor's appointment, chores, and walking Sherlock through our beautiful countryside... then back to the computer.

We're heading to the Brienz Wood Carving Festival. This spring, the village, occupied from the Bronz age and Roman times, was under threat from a landslide. The 3,000 population was evacuated until after the danger has passed.

Brienz is and has been a major center for wood carvers for at least a couple of centuries. 

It will be our second time there. On the way home two years ago from a golf tournament, we stopped to see the place where our William Tell statute had been carved in the early 1900s. 

I was gobsmacked by all the beautiful carvings from small pieces that could fit on a desk to bigger than life works.

Driving thru the Swiss cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Berne will also be a joy. I live in a country that's a postcard.

Leaving my laptop, I hope will bring relief from the pain of the news, wars and political unrest. Both Rick and I have had to fight to not be depressed on things we cannot change. 

Yelling at the TV is useless. Writing to alleged leaders and using our journalistic voices now hoarse only makes us feel if we've done something. 

I look forward to time with my husband as man and woman not as writers but people revelling in the beauty around us. Since we are taking Sherlock, I hope he enjoys new sniffs and places to leave p-mail

Leaving the laptop will be an interesting exercise. If our hotel doesn't have international news stations, we won't be able to watch the results of the British election or hear any more fallout from the French votation and we'll have blessed relief  from hearing about Trump and the unravelling of our birth country. 

I will try and forget about all those living under bombs and threats of starvation. 

I won't be able to writevalthough I'll have my journal and pen to jot notes hoping that I'll be able to read my writing when we return to Geneva. 

I do love my life. I realize every day how blessed I am. One of those blessings is being able to get away in a country that when I was a child was just pictures on jigsaw puzzles.