I’m as close to obsessed with this iPhone as I’ve been for any iPhone in a long time. The silver iPhone 14 Pro, in particular, is stunning. The camera bump is huge and produces amazing photos. The always-on display is handy for keeping you in the loop for what’s going on. And the Dynamic Island provides some fun new ways to interact with iOS 16.

Here’s a quick look at my home and lock screens. I’ve removed all widgets from my home screen in favour of putting them into the Today Widget view section. I don’t see them as often here, but it allows for more apps on the home screen. I’m not sure if I prefer this or not.

This is the first time where sharing your lock screen actually makes sense. On my lock screen, I have a Fantastical three-week calendar widget, a five-hour CARROT Weather forecast, and up in the top date bar, I have an extra CARROT Weather widget for notifying me of precipitation. Precipitation carries a whole new meaning for me after this spring’s flooding, so I now keep a very close eye on what’s falling from the sky.

I recognize a few of the pieces of information here are duplicative. I really like the way the Fantastical three-week calendar looks, though it doesn’t provide any context for the next event on my calendar. I tried this in the date bar thingy up top, but ran into a funny bug where the event was just a bar.

All in all, I’m really happy with this iPhone. It looks great, feels great, takes great photos, and provides a new type of utility I’ve not experienced in an iPhone before in the always-on display.

Patrick Rhone, a friend and writing colleague of many of ours, went on a social network path at one point in time when posting about his family and family activities. ”This is important.” he would write, over and over again.

”This is important.” has become my new favourite slogan as of late.

When an old friend, whom you haven’t seen for 10 years, walks past you on the street, you stop, talk, and give each other hug. This is important.

When your time on-screen is about to debut in front of 700 people and your newborn needs a diaper change, you change the diaper. This is important.

When you drop off your toddler at pre-school for the first time and he doesn’t want you to leave his side, you stay and play with him despite being late for work. This is important.

When you stayed late playing with your son at pre-school and you have an important work project to finish, you stay late and finish. This is important.

When you finish supper, jump on the couch to watch the baseball game, and want to fall asleep, you fall asleep. This is important.

When a client calls over your family supper with an emergency, you answer the call. This is important.

When your child has nightmares and simply can’t get back to sleep without mom or dad, you let them crawl into the middle of the bed and you hold yourself on the edge of the bed for the rest of the night. This is important.

When you have a chance to purchase tickets to that important football game and you question whether it’s worth the money, you purchase the tickets. This is important.

When your alarm clock blares at 7:30AM Sunday morning after a hard, hard week at the office, reminding you to get ready to go to church, you get your butt out of bed and get dressed to go to church. This is important.

To everything, there is a season.

Work cannot always come first. Family cannot always be prioritized.

Rest and relaxation sometimes must come later, after the hard work is done. Hard work can be done after you’ve had some time away.

Money should be saved. Yet sometimes, you should go into debt to have some fun.

Wherever you may find yourself, life must be lived.

This is important.