I recently wrote about the possibility of disconnecting internet service after a conversation I had with my son. Being self employed with my business being online it originally seemed like it would be impossible to consider such a move. But over the past few days I have made a conscious effort to not use the internet while at home and to complete my work while enjoying my morning coffee at the coffee house.

I have to admit the first day or two it was tough not to go to my office to check website traffic, email, search engine rankings etc., but with each passing day it is getting easier and it turns out I'm not missing a thing!

Previously I would use the "excuse" of having to check my email in case there was an important business email that I needed to respond to. With today's mobile phones that excuse is gone. I can read all my email from my phone if I absolutely need to. If there is an email that is "urgent" I can call them or it will be addressed the next morning from the coffee house. Turns out there are very few email messages that require immediate attention and most people are thrilled to have a response with 24 hours.

This experience has been very eye opening for me. I find I have more time for new things and to complete those personal projects that may have previously put on hold.

In addition, it has removed the "tunnel vision" we can sometimes get when we focus on the same thing day after day and are stuck in a routine. As a result, new ideas are coming more freely and the single biggest benefit is additional time with my son to do "father- son stuff" as he calls it.

My internet service is still hooked up but I am going to continue this experiment for the next 30 days until my internet bill is again due. It may very well be a bill I will no longer need to pay as I begin to live my "life unplugged"

it was a beautiful weekend in Idaho....

bright sunshine and warm...

I packed up my camera, got my usual coffee and headed out for a drive on Idaho 55

the river is still low, waiting for the runoff from the winter snow...

the very river my son and I went rafting on last summer...

now the large rocks and boulders we navigated visible from the road...

amazing how nature transforms things....

with each mile I drive, more snow covers the landscape...

the lakes still frozen but beginning to thaw...

I pulled over to take some photos of the gorgeous lake...

sitting on a rock in the bright sunshine looking out over God's creation...

absolute silence...just me and nature...

then off in the distance I see several birds on the side of the lake...

too far to really determine what kind of birds they were...

I zoomed in on them with my camera and to my delight it was a group of Eagles....

the essence of freedom...

after taking some photos I just sat watching these incredible creatures...

the lake, the eagles, the sunshine...the incredible peace that I felt as I sat in total silence...

my spirit recharged I proceed back to my truck for the 90 minute drive back home...

what an amazing and uplifting experience...

So I had a talk with my 11 year old son...

he knows my business is on the internet and that it "requires" me to be online quite a bit...

I told him that every morning after I drop him off at school I go to my favorite coffee house with my laptop...

In a few hours at the coffee house I can get pretty much complete most of my work during this time...

much of what I do from my home office is "busy work"...

true inspiration comes to me while at the coffee house or while outside enjoying life....

in fact, the coffee house is where this is being written from...

so, I got to thinking....

what did we do before we had the internet in our homes?

enjoy the outdoors...read a book...take up a new hobby...exercise?

hmmm??? sounds a lot more intriguing to me...

but to give up the internet with instant access to anything across the world 24/7...

could I really do that?

I asked my son if we canceled home internet service would he okay with that?

he said, yes that he doesn't really go online too often...

he said that if we canceled the internet, I wouldn't be on the computer as much and we could do even more "father-son stuff"

WOW! what an incredible comment from an 11 year old boy!

We are blessed to be able to spend a lot of time together, but he still wants more...

as I am sitting here in the coffee house I am pondering the comment my son made to me...

we live in a 24/7 world with instant access to anything....

all our kids want is access to US...

we still have jobs to do and bills to pay...

buy maybe, just maybe if we shut down our computers more and open ourselves to our kids...

we may find we don't need technology 24/7 as much as we think we do...

so am I canceling my home internet service?

I'm not sure yet...

for the next few weeks though I am going to complete all my work while at the coffee house...

so if I don't respond to your email within 10 minutes you know why...