Opinions
Wi-fi Free
Try going to a place where there is no internet connection and staying there for four straight days.
On the first day, you get disoriented.
On the second day, you go insane.
On the third day, you have no choice but to take stock of who you are.
On the fourth day, to your shock and disbelief, you find your authentic self—the self you lost in the noise of mass media and the electronic world.
For four days, I was cloistered in a Wi-fi free zone. Note: the word “free” comes after, not before, Wi-fi (which is the norm in my and many urban neighborhoods today).
I discovered how much time FB, youtube, blogs, e-mails, e-bay, e-news, e-columns, and other websites, where I overindulge and overstay day after day, have taken away from my writing, reading, and quiet/prayer time.
At the leadership training conference of Compassion International, where I facilitated one of its modules, I lived in an Eden-like valley surrounded by Laguna mountains, and far away from the cement jungle—and Wi-fi.
There I learned once again how to LOL (not Laugh Out Loud, but Live Out Life) the way it should be: the exact words are found in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, the theme of the gathering.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with you body.
It was no coincidence that I roomed with a physician, another speaker and a new friend, who survived terminal cancer 10 years ago by deeply studying and putting into practice what the Scriptures say about nutrition—the regimen of the ancient Bible men and women who lived hundreds of years.
From her, I am learning what nature has to offer our body which controls our mind.
When she decided to forgo the rest of her treatments in favor of natural diet and supplements, her doctor was appalled. “I am dying anyway, Doc,” she argued. “If I die, then you’re right. If I live, God healed me.”
She lived.
She has since then been studying the molecular structures of trees, fruits, and plants freely given to us by the Creator who extended her life, sharing her findings on TV interviews, and being in constant awe of their wonders to man.
“We came from dust,” she explained. “There is a connection between us and food that grows in dust.”
It was also no coincidence that I forgot to bring along my cell phone charger. My only lifeline to the world had become mute, mimicking me—the better to really hear myself.
Our body, defiled by the alluring call of Wi-fi, sometimes needs a long stretch of silence to be drained of chatter and sounds—and be re-charged with the calming grace of nature.
