Let me have one more celebration for the slow, for the peace, for the freedom. I know it looks as if I have been all alone this summer and done nothing but watch the grass grow. You forgive me for not sharing the festive, fancy and fabulous or the crowded and crazy days. My deliberate choice to highlight the slow is my way to fill myself to the brim with the calm before the school year begins. Writing this helps me to store these scenes and sensations and state of mind and heart in order to retrieve them when most needed.
Celebrating the last days of slow:
Celebrating the last days of slow:
There is no plan. Wake up and do or don't do anything. You can get a lot done if you want to, but you don't have to. There is no "must" especially if you let go of expectations, set by who knows who. Nothing happens if you don't weed the flowerbed today. The laundry can wait. You can wear the same yoga pants many days in a row. You don't have to go to a beach and swim on a sunny day.You can go if you want to. No problem if you forgot to comb your hair. Life is good without a mirror. The skin feels smoother and hair shinier in the mind's eye. Do what you like. Take your time. Go for a walk before breakfast. Pick a small handful of peppermint plants for a tea and a leaf of salad for a sandwich or few strawberries for your morning porridge. Read for hours. Count the cloud animals. Follow a ladybug. Listen to the silence.
You can. You may. Enjoy.
The slow, the peace, the freedom are precious gifts.
A bit of evening sun:
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ReplyDeleteAnd your words show how to celebrate living, Terje. They remind me of Thoreau: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away, but eternity remains." I'm smiling to think of your wandering days!
ReplyDeleteMy days of slow will mostly be on the weekends now... we are back to school with students tomorrow, after 4 days of teacher preparation last week. But I hope we will take a few moments for slow each day.
ReplyDeleteAh, your post captures slow! My favorites: "Do what you like. Read for hours." I love that you're filling yourself to the brim with calm.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you for this post. I am sitting in the shirt I slept in and haven't looked in a mirror yet today. I have been contemplating what will or won't get done today. I think I will take it slow. I've been on high speed lately.
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