The last day of work (for the summer – I work at a school), my boss, friend, co-worker had her staff over for a delightful end of the year dinner. Then I spent the next two days getting ready for an Anniversary party I was hosting on the weekend. My sister from Mississauga arrived and we headed out to my aunt’s cottage on a gorgeous quaint lake in BC. The weather was ….meh. We had a couple of lovely hot days. We walked twice a day with the dog and watched movies by night – they have a cinema room. Laid on the dock once the sun and heat finally decided to show their face and burnt my feet to a crisp. This was slow living for sure. We headed back to the city to join the rest of my visiting family for a few days and did the stampede and shopped the malls, did a couple of pancake breakfasts and watched a few more movies. One might think that was slow living. But it really wasn’t. What I am doing now, after all the guests have left and the travelling is done….this is slow living. And slow living is what I plan to do for the rest of the summer.
Slow Living at its best.
We (aka I) get so caught up in….getting things done – on a schedule that we (I) forget to stop and smell the coffee and the roses and the rain. Speaking of rain….while I was away it hailed pretty bad and pretty much destroyed all of my exposed plants and flowers. Dismal. Disappointing. Destructive. BUT….I had a wall of growth on the south side of the barn wall that escaped the harsh, wet, cold pellets and it is doing marvelously. So rather than mourn my garden loss, I will celebrate this lovely wall of flowers and leaves. I don’t have to be anywhere these days. Who cares if my house is clean. I’ll get up before the heat and do my morning walk with the dog and come home and meditate and pray and study for a while…go out and water the plants (in the proper way since we have watering restrictions going on in my city), and then I’m free to do my hearts desire. Bake sourdough. Paint. Sew. Read. Write. Knit. Crochet. Nap. I’ve put myself on a shopping ban for the summer so I don’t have to do that. Just enjoy my postage stamp backyard. Get rid of my farmer’s tan. That sort of thing.
I mean I do have a few medical appointments and one of my other sisters is coming to town and I’ll probably have to be the chauffeur. And I still have to keep the bathrooms clean and make a meal now and then but for the most part….live slow. Contemplate. Meditate. Daydreamate. There will be plenty of time to ruminate and concentrate and commiserate in the fall. I’m going to watch and video the bees hovering over my roses. And watch the ants form their little marching rows on the stone wall. Gaze at cloud formations while I lie in the backyard listening to the trees sway in the breeze (or not). Breathe deep as I lay in bed listening to the rain on the deck roof. Have naps in my happy reading chair when I’m planning on reading. Run out in my nightgown early every morning to see what has transpired in the garden. Sip ice tea on the deck in the lazy afternoons. I do have to get some emergency dental work done this summer as well so that may put a bit of a damper on things but I will just be so relieved to know that dental infection is not going to be the cause of my demise that it will be… OK.
Slow living – my definition – is to not obsess over anything. It’s to relax. It’s to have time to think. Hear my own thoughts. Hear the voice of God in case He’s trying to tell me something. Appreciate the beauty of…everything that’s beautiful. It’s to recognize the beautiful. It’s to live in the moment and cherish the moments. Slow living is to say no to stress. We all have stress in our lives, even if we are on summer vacation, but just say no. One way to let it go is to give it all to the Lord – the one who can actually do something about everything for anyone at any time.
I have to go now. Slow living is calling me.
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The Red Plaid Apron 