Ricky joined the Be Here Now experiment today, and she’s a huge inspiration to me. (She’s the creator of BedBound.org.) Here’s her story:

I’m bedridden and have a computer mounted so I can use it in bed (there’s a photo on this page that shows the screen mounted above my bed). I spend a lot of time using the computer and doing internet related things - having the ability to do that is fantastic because I’m able to accomplish so much with the computer and net access, things I could never do without it. The computer and internet enriches my life hugely and without it I would have only radio/TV/CDs for company, not something I like to contemplate.

But on the other hand using the computer so much does sometimes lead to me almost forgetting where “here” is in a way! It’s like my mind ends up in the internet and doing ten things at once and I end up not getting anything done because switching between ten tasks is very inefficient.

So I’ve put my “be here now” on a sign below the computer screen and added a big arrow pointing down towards me. The photo above shows the view from my perspective: The green at the bottom of the photo is the bedclothes over my knees. So the sign is reminding me to be *here* - in my body, in this place and this time and not all fragmented inside the internet. The net is great, but there’s an importance to being *here* too.

Thank you very much for this project - I’m loving everybody’s stories and photographs.

Ricky, thank YOU for being part of the project and keeping me inspired. Awesome!