Tuesday, April 22, 2014

s is for slow


It's the A to Zed Challenge!I posted the first half of the month from Ottawa where I stayed with my youngest and his partner and their newest - a little guy who was born the end of March. Yay!Now I'm back home in Labrador...

Theme? Writing and Life is what comes to me... how to balance the writing life with the other tugs you may have...

The ABCDEaria of the Writing Life -


S is for slow.  . . 

I need to remember to slow down. How can I be patient enough to achieve balance if I'm always straining against the harness? I can't, that's clear. My impatience is my biggest bugbear. For instance, right now I keep getting a notice saying that an error occurred when trying to save or publish this post. But I haven't been trying to save or publish this post so I keep hitting Dismiss. It comes back and I feel like driving my fist through my monitor screen. Nice huh? Why should I get so aggravated? It doesn't hurt, it just causes me to slow down. I want to write this quickly so I can read or lounge around but why? I have heaps of time to do what ever I want. And I chose to do this so why not just slow down and enjoy it. 

Ah, there...

When I made the quilt for my newest grandchild I sewed it all by hand. Every bit of it. Not because I belong to some religious sect that forbids the use of electricity (obviously) but because I liked thinking about it and being with it all as I made it. I know quilts sewn on machines are just as good and can be better, but I wanted to slow craft it. I like hand-writing letters, baths not showers, and I was all into the slow food movement before it began. I like making risotto and enchiladas with hand-made tortillas and I like embroidering great involved flower gardens on a friend's shirt. I like walking, not running.

But for all that.

I'm impatient so I think I'll put big slow down signs all over the house. Yep. How about you?

Yesterday I visited a friend's cabin in the woods...so quiet and slow there, I wish we would've stayed for days.

3 comments:

Liza said...

You made that quilt with love. Probably the risotto and the enchiladas too!

Anonymous said...

Jan - That's been a lesson I've had to learn too - to slow down and let things happen as they happen. That's the key to the balance we all need. Rushing things just adds stress and it doesn't make for a polished finished product anyway.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

SLOW DOWN-- so much better than Speed up! The post really resonated with me, Jan.