Last week, I wrote about dropping my daughter off on her month-long program and how hard it was for me to part, also knowing she’d do some pretty unreal things like her 48-hour solo expedition. On deck for this week?

Her scuba certification.

She didn’t catch wind of my anxiety about her scuba diving thankfully.

My only memory of diving was when I was exactly her age, 16-years-old and on vacation with my family. At about 30 feet under, my sister got sick from the air pressure and lost her regulator.

Untrained and uncertified, we were doing what I’d never want my kids to do and had some guy in some program take us under the sea.

We had very different experiences.

As I explored outrageous coral and fish with my brother, my poor sister had gotten sick from the air pressure changes and ended up back on the boat, stomach pumped and nearly lost her life. I thought she had gotten scared and swam up.

Soooooo, it makes sense that I equate scuba diving with some sort of scary-don’t-do-that activity.

But I let it go and trusted her amazing school and certification program.

Instead, after dropping her off, Maddie and I grabbed two snorkels and jumped into the sea to try to simulate even a fraction of what Sydney might see.

We were only on the surface, but we kept finding each other.

And then I remembered something from that scuba moment so many years ago.

I heard a sound so loud, I was overwhelmed with its power.

The sound? It was SILENCE.

Can you even hear silence??

I never used to think so. And then there it was… this loud silence, the ultimate oxymoron, propelling me almost instantly into my own mind, and the present moment.

I shifted into a state of appreciation of where I was, that my one daughter was next to me, and that my other daughter would know this sound in a profound way as she explored the depths of this world under the surface.

Whenever we’d emerge, I wanted more of the silence. For me that sound so rare!!

I feel I’m always checking my phone, attending to everyone around me, getting lost in things.

Do you do this too?

How often to you sit in - and simply appreciate - silence?

If you work or are raising kids, you may discover long moments of silence as the escape I found it to be.

And you know what it inspired?

A digital detox!!

Starting this weekend, Madigan and I will be entirely offline, taking a lead from the amazing Marie Forleo, and next week we will go off the gird.

No weekly emails. No social media. No exchanges about work that we know can wait.

I’m excited to see what happens when I allow the silence I found under the sea to infuse parts of my days up here on land. To get quiet and restrain from filling the spaces with distractions…it’s hard.

I want to sit in that silence and let myself think, journal, dream...

Isn’t that where the answers are anyway?

I’ll be in touch in two weeks and let you know what we discover.

In the meantime, I wish you a joyful start to summer and loads of silence!!

With fierce love,
Alison