Monday, April 12, 2010

Click,,,, Click,,,, Click,,,,

I have made a discovery! Something that started out innocent enough has taken over my life. Well, maybe not my whole life, but a good chunk of time each day one click at a time.

Over the last few months I have developed, now don't laugh, a pretty awesome Country Life farm on Facebook. Those of you who have farms, cafes, islands, etc will understand what I am talking about. Those of you who don't will think it crazy of me to feel the need to feed my little cows, cute rabbits and adorable sheep. As well as, spending a lot of time click,,,, click,,,, clicking on my crops to harvest them and re-clicking on each spot to replant more seeds. And that would be roughly 552 clicks just for my crops! Yikes - I think I need help! Bet you think so, too.

During the past few weeks I have noticed I am farming more and more. Clicking on the crops, to click on the cows, to click on the cheese maker - click,,,, click,,,, click. I squeeze in any free minutes I can to get enough points to advance to the next level so now I can plant... oh, my, gosh - raspberries! For those of you who don't know me well -please read that last line with a moderate amount of sarcasm.

I don't understand this obsession at all. But what I have come to understand is - it is stealing from me. It is stealing time, money and even joy. Ugh! This is not good!

It is stealing time I could be spending with others. I have found myself half paying attention to family members and co-workers. I have gotten pretty good at timing how long until the jars of jam will be ready before a few more clicks are needed to get them into my barn. So, I can talk than click,,, click,,, click and than turn my attention back to the conversation. The truth is I hate it when I am half ignored by someone while they answer their cell or return a text. And here I am doing it to others with my CCD (Compulsive Clicking Disorder).

It is stealing money. Since I work a half day on Saturdays I voluntarily take a short lunch the rest of the week in order to make my forty hours. However, more than once now I have clocked in later than planned because I was waiting for the cute little bees to hover over to the clover, make it back to their hives and then for the little jars of honey to appear so I could click,,,, click,,, click on them to store them in my barn.

It is stealing some joy from me. Now, that is really not a good thing. The most important thing to me in life has always been my family and especially time spent with them. The love, laughter and memories we share, as we live life together, is so precious to me and brings me a lot of joy. I also enjoy sending cards, notes and emails to friends and family as a way to share my love or bring encouragement. Who has time when they have a farm to run?!

Well, I have made a decision.... my farm will stay at level 28 with a partially built greenhouse. I will never get to the level needed to plant strawberries. But, I am not going to stop click,,,, click,,,, clicking. No way! I will click out emails of encouragement. I will click out promises to pray for my friends on Facebook. I will click out posts on my blog. And you know what? I'm  feeling more joy already!