A morning without a phone

Tried it again this morning. Left it face-down on the kitchen counter, walked to the window, and stayed there for what turned out to be eleven minutes.

Most of the eleven minutes were the same minute. A neighbor’s cat crossing a fence. The same sparrow returning to the same gutter. A delivery truck idling on the corner, then leaving.

Nothing in the eleven minutes asked anything of me. That, more than anything else, is the point.