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Slowing life down

meatless monday pic of cow

10/19/2021 Tuesday

Life proceeds at a frenetic pace. I feel the need to return to my homesteading lifestyle for the purpose of slowing life down.

I frequently find myself asking why am I rushing? Is this activity really necessary? What am I in a hurry to get to?

One of my intentions in moving out to the country years ago was slowing life down. And yet I tend to bring the frenetic pace with me wherever I go. I have gotten a lot better over the years but especially living back in the big city, it is almost automatic to shift back into overdrive and get stressed. So intentionally returning to homesteading activities: hanging clothes on the line, feeding the neighborhood birds, tending to goldfish in my fountain, taking my dad and the dog for walks, canning, preserving, sewing, and numerous other activities. I think you get the picture. Theoretically, this helps me not to rush.

I keep a schedule outline because I just need to have something to look at to get myself moving sometimes. But then I get tied to the hour designations and get in a hurry and have to stop and think, as Captain Barbarossa says about the pirate’s code in Pirates of the Caribbean, “It’s more like a set of guidelines.”

Another reason I schedule myself is so that I don’t over-schedule myself. I put all my desired activities on the calendar so that I know what my options are and then every week I do a schedule for the week, choose which activities I’m going to do, and that’s it. I limit myself to a certain number of outings, a certain number of appointments, and I have to have a lot of free and flexible time in there to adapt and be available for things that come up. Like emergencies. Or a sale on turkey that fills up my freezer so that I need to do a bunch of canning. Or dad needs a haircut.

And yet anxiety still sneaks up on me. So I guess it is one day at a time. Learning to let go and be flexible. And not take myself too seriously. And keep working on the process of slowing life down.

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