Every now and then my husband leaves me a little surprise, by logging into my computer, navigating to a website he thinks I’ll find interesting, and leaving it on-screen. Then, when I next log on, there it is waiting for me. Now, sometimes these are thinly veiled attempts at pedagogy or persuasion – a radical left-wing podcast or an online bike parts store – but often enough they are little gems. Let me tell you about the one I found yesterday.
Conceived by the independent thinkers at Adbusters, Slow Down Week is described as, “seven days without fast food, fast cars or cheap thrills. Seven days of taking your time, breathing easy and making yourself at home.” Hmmm…slow down, take my time…breathe easy, eh? Count me in!
Although I missed the “official” slow down week (January 15-21), I decided to try and put the idea into practice in my life anyway. After all, isn’t it kind of counter to the whole “slow” movement to stress over having missed it? Inspired, I set to work on slowing down.
After a few days of chaos, I realized that slowing down doesn’t mean slacking off. After all, my daughter’s school starts at 8:40 whether I like it or not. In order to allow time for a relaxed breakfast (of slow-cooked oats) and a peaceful walk to school – with time built in for wanderings and explorations, I realized that I would have to set my alarm (something I haven’t done since I started working from home over 18 months ago). Sounds counter-intuitive, but lesson number one for me was that in order to slow down, you’ve got to actually give yourself time to do things, in the most literal sense.
Lesson number two is that the reason we lead such busy lives is because we simply don’t know how to prioritize anymore. Technology has made everything so darn easy to do, that we don’t want to face the simple fact that we simply can’t do them all. For instance: I want to watch a certain TV show, but it’s on at an inconvenient time, so I set the digital box to record it. Now I’m “free” to watch it whenever I like, right? Not really. Now I’ve just added one more thing to my to-do list. Like many people, I’ve gotten so used to getting my way on just about anything, I often refuse to accept that there are things that simply cannot be done, and I must actually make choices about what they are. Simply put; I had to give myself permission to say “NO”.
Once I did, I found it remarkably freeing. In fact, by saying no to some trivial things in my life (I erased 8 episodes of BBC gardening shows from the digital box), I’ve been able to find time to do things I wouldn’t have been able to do before. I sat down at my piano this afternoon with my two daughters, and taught my five year-old to play “Mary Has a Little Lamb”. Next I’m going to teach them to play my favourite Simon & Garfunkel song, “Feelin’ Groovy”. It goes like this,
Slow down, you move too fast
Got to make the mornin’ last.
Just kickin’ down the cobblestones
Lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy.
Hello lamppost, what you knowin’
I’ve come to watch your flowers growin.
Ain’t you got no time for me.
Doodeeda doo doo, feelin’ groovy.
Maybe I’ll see you out there someday. I’ll be the one watching the flowers growin’.
Please share your comments below or email me at kath@urbanmoms.ca.
Kath