6 Jay Drive, Randolph NJ.  That was our address when I lived in Jr. High.  We lived on a steep road, and our house had a steep driveway.  The summers were hot and the winters were cold.  I had to walk to the end of our street in the morning to catch the bus and walk up the street on the way home.  Me and Justin Fay played outside until it was dark or time to come in for dinner.  There was no Internet back then.

The first computer our family had was purchased when we lived there on Jay Drive.  It cost more than I care to disclose and required 5 1/4” floppy disks simply to boot up.  I only remember 3 programs from that computer… Sopwith, Typing Tutor, and Basic.  I am certain there were other applications on the many disks we had, but those are all I remember at the moment.

Why do I bring these items to the fore?  I think it’s because I’m looking for something simple, and life then was simple.  Get up, get ready for school, eat breakfast, go to school, come home, play, eat dinner, hang with family, go to bed.  It didn’t seem like there was really that much information available at the time.  But things have changed, and that’s all different now.

To say information exists in abundance today would just be a truism.  The idea of a simple life has been so far left behind that it is difficult to contrast the two in any meaningful fashion.  Today the volume of information is overwhelming.  The sheer amount of data causes my head to spin.  And that’s just in my little corner of the world.  The info. comes from so many sources at such velocity… and here’s the thing – it takes up space.  It takes up mental space, spiritual space, emotional space, and spiritual space.

Lately the amount of information is getting to me.  Internet news, blog feeds, emails, twitter, facebook, newspapers, bills, menus, flyers, bulletins, texts, voice mails, proposals, quotes, reminders, calendars, task lists, meetings, files… I get tired just putting this stuff down in a post.

I hear a still small voice inside my head, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…”  I think this post is simply a cry from my heart longing to listen more closely to that voice, to spend more time sitting at the feet of that Voice, instead of listening to so many of the other voices that surround me.  Instead of allowing the waves of earthly information drown me, I should focus on swimming in the ocean of heavenly truth.  So much like Martha, but I want to be like Mary.