A BlackBerry Intervention

The year ended with number crunching – and recrunching – and excruciating cost-cutting. My gutsy business development director, Robin Washington, waved me toward the door early. “Go,” she said, beaming. “We’re about to have a meeting – and it’s about you.”

That’s when the constant flow of e-mails stopped. No more need to check the BlackBerry every 30 seconds. An hour later – still nothing. So I headed on holiday with my family not knowing if the issue of the magazine actually made it to press on the 30th, or whether any of our many RFPs actually closed, or if other opportunities came in, or if there were any crises I needed to manage. The Earth didn’t stand still.

At Canyon Ranch, my older son played tennis while the younger one had his fist pedicure. My husband jumped rope while I tackled yoga and cardio-circuit classes. Despite the cell – and BlackBerry-free zones at the Ranch, I occasionally took a peek. Still no office e-mails. They never came. For the first time since launching PINK Street LLC five years ago, I had no need to look constantly at the thing and respond to fix whatever needed fixing.

My shoulders dropped two inches.

Meanwhile, my husband and our teenagers hiked together along Sabino Canyon past 200-year-old cactuses. Each morning we watched the Earth bow to the sun, taught our boys about healthy eating, and learned the value of interval training, headstands and slow, conscious breathing. We listened to the disciple of a shaman. But the best wisdom came from the pretty young woman at the nail salon. Having dropped out of college to raise her two young kids, she explained, “I didn’t want life to be ‘hurry up, brush your teeth, go to school. Hurry up, brush your teeth, go to bed.’” Ouch. It sounded too much like my life. But she had a solution. “I read that you just need to look your kids in the eyes when you talk to them and hug them 12 times a day.” That simple.

So we head back into the thick of a new year, the craziness and e-mails and deadlines, with global economic turmoil and a raging war in Gaza. But somehow I believe all will be fine in 2009. We just need peace, the chance to do work we love, 12 hugs a day – and the occasional BlackBerry intervention.

By Cynthia Good