I had a revelation yesterday. If you follow our blog regularly or have had longer than a 5 minute conversation with me at any point over the last two years, you know I’m on a mission to establish Milagro as a new category. A new genre. To create an entirely new kind of place. And I’ve struggled at times to describe it. To put it into words. To have an “elevator pitch”. I’m slightly wordy and tend to obsess over ideas and thoughts to the point of semi-insanity (if that’s even a thing). I’m really fun at small talk.
We say “we do spa differently”, but what does that even mean, you guys? I’m still figuring it out, exactly. What IS Milagro?
Then yesterday I thought, “Milagro is a human recharging station.”
In a twist of irony, the electronic boxes we carry around are horrible for our well being AND a fantastic metaphor for why. (I think it’s irony…Maggie, Steph, and I had a long discussion recently about the true definition of irony versus the Alanis Morisette definition of irony. We’re ALL really fun at small talk, can you tell?)
Ashley science says that 99.9% of the things we do in a day are draining to our souls. Adulting (and honestly, child-ing…new term I just made up) is HARD in 2016. Often times because we’ve made it that way. And often times because we believe it’s what’s expected. And it’s what everyone else is doing, so….shrug.
When the interwebs brought us the ability to know, read, and see everything that has ever been created in the entire history of humans, it brought us a huge blessing and an even huge-r curse. Knowing EVERYTHING is some serious pressure. And that’s a lot of loud voices. With a lot of loud opinions. About everything. And we carry these devices around on our persons, people. All the live long day. Sometimes we’re even switching back and forth between pocket size, lap size, and full size. It’s madness and it drains the living daylights out of our brains. And then when we try to have actual interactions with actual human people, we’re out. We’re empty. We’re frazzled and unfocused and can’t listen well or be present or remember important details. We have too many tabs open. Our memory card is full. The little battery indicator on our insides is flashing a warning – no…more…juice.
I know this because I am this. And it makes me angry. Angry with modern times in general (which is RIDICULOUS because think of all the fantastic, life improving and life saving stuff technology gives us) but mostly angry with myself. I want to be fully present with people I love. I want to remember the important things they tell me. I want to spend time doing thoughtful things to show them how much I care. I want them to know that none of the stuff I “do” is as important to me as they are. I want to remember birthdays (and no, not ON the day because facebook told me so…far enough in advance to send an actual card, the old fashioned way) and anniversaries (happy ones and sad ones, so that I can celebrate or comfort).
Where can you go anymore to turn off the noise? There is literally no escape. It follows us home and even waits on our nightstands for us to wake up. Hell, it’s usually doing the waking.
Our brains and our hearts and our souls need charged on the regular. Milagro is that place.
Milagro has no opinion on your life other than YOU NEED A BREAK. Milagro does not care what you eat or where you work or how you parent or what shampoo you use or what church you go to (or don’t) or what party you vote for (or don’t). Not because we don’t love you but because we do. Honestly, in the age of “we’re the experts” marketing, the last thing I need is another voice telling me what I should do. I am OVER the experts and their advice and opinions on my life.
I am determined to design my own damn life. To choose my own priorities. To opt out of nonsense. You know why? Because when I skate along doing the mind numbing daily inconsequential crap, it takes (usually awful) reminders about how short life is and how fragile life is and how unfair and unpredictable life is to shake me back to reality. I don’t want to need those reminders. I want to live from that place at every single moment. And living in that place requires uplugging, From everything. Just me, my heart, my thoughts, and some quiet. It’s necessary. As my friend Stacy says, it’s adult timeout. It’s Milagro.
