The Importance of an Offline Life

How I Made a Whopping 57 Cents on Medium Last Month (and Enjoyed Myself Immensely)

How I Made a Whopping 57 Cents on Medium Last Month (and Enjoyed Myself Immensely)

Due to various challenging circumstances last month, I quit trying to keep up with my weekly writing habit on Medium.

While my earnings had grown month over month, the month of May did not impress.

I earned less than a dollar.

Here’s what I did do: I went hiking. I brought my watercolor set, and I painted little snippets of nature while I listened to the birds and the bees.

For the record, I love that I can write in the morning and be published by that afternoon. The internet is an AMAzing tool.

But when it starts taking over entire days/weeks/months of my life and my skin starts looking pasty, I know it’s time to get outside in the sunshine and have experiences IRL.

We humans are products of nature. We need to connect with nature. And beauty, and human flesh. Not to sound weird, but we need in-person, in-the-flesh meetings with people to remind us to stay human.

There is nothing like the magic of meeting a wild animal on our path. It reminds us of our roots — the fundamental precariousness of our existence, and our placement on the food chain.

When I paint, I forget myself. I forget the competition that has become part of daily life for so many of us. How many likes did I get? Did I make any money from my articles? Did I get any new followers?

I believe that we are losing access to a fundamental part of our consciousness, by giving away our attention all day long to an artificial experience of relating. When we spend time connecting to nature, we come home to ourselves.

I feel so grateful to have access to wild nature. I could be in a designated wilderness area in about 45 minutes from leaving my home. I know I am fortunate, and that most people do not have that luxury.

But I also recognize that most people to not label this as a luxury. Luxury to most people is a fancy hotel.

But if you are disconnected from your consciousness, and pasty-skinned from spending too much time online, then what good is a stay at a luxury hotel?

Anyway, that’s my thinking.

Don’t get me wrong, I love luxury hotels. But if I had to choose, I prefer to spend time sitting on a rock by the rushing creek with my watercolors.

If you’d like to follow my art, find me at @kimrobertsart.