It’s hard keeping up with the internet. I’ve not posted on this blog since January 3, because it’s hard to make time in my life to actually sit down and write something out, format it and get it online. I have a life away from the internet, a great accomplishment in the 21st century. I have writing that’s on paper and poems on lines with ink. I have letters to my fiancee and places that I take her that never end up in my news feed. I’m comfortable with that. I’m happy with that.

I constantly struggle with the balance between digital technology and physical life because I’m online a lot. I run multiples companies: Anchorfolk, Typeset, with their own social accounts, and they require a lot of work. There are things that are just more real than the internet, things that I can touch and feel and do and be.

Have you ever thought about just being away from the noise of the feed and the likes? Did you know you can sit still and listen to the sound of your breathing without browsing something, without constantly looking at something new?

You can stop for a moment and listen to the thoughts in your head: Let them hurt, let them bring the emotions they bring. Stop drowning them. Deal with them. Make peace with yourself.

Stop looking for the likes and the attention. Stop looking for constant affirmation for who you are and what you do. Become comfortable without the clamor of the outside. Invest in people, invest in relationships that matter. People that you can see and hear and touch, directly with your life. Stop looking at people as your platform or your audience. Be content with what is before you.

Reduce your online clutter, because it’s your choice whether you pick up a book or scan through Facebook again. It’s your choice whether you feed an imaginary world or cultivate real, tangible, relationships with people you love.