It happens every October. I start to get run down, overwhelmed and I find myself tearing my hair out because calendars are full. I liken myself to a puppy chasing its tail; you never quite catch up and you can’t remember why you started doing something in the first place. You are just running around in circles crazily and tiring yourself out.
I like being busy but I draw the line at being busy for busy sake. This year I wanted to take a slower pace in my personal life. Grow our food, enjoy more family time and just be together as a young family. Once again it’s October and today is the 15th. That’s 15 days crammed packed with to-do lists, work and just being busy. I’m okay with being busy for an objective but not when there is no end goal in sight and with the shortening days, less outdoor time and the busy season truly kicking off with anything to do with wool, well I’ve been feeling rather thin.
The Slow Movement
With my crazy life, it’s no wonder the idea of a slow pace and whole food appeals to me. To be mindful and listen to my body and my inner self more. Your body and mind tell you when they are tired and at their limit for certain things but how often do you listen? I know I hear it but usually, I’m pushing to finish something and ignore it.
For those of you who are feeling what I am but a little lost, SLOW stands for Sustainable, Local, Organic and Whole and started with the Slow Food Movement but has grown to encompass Slow Living, Slow Cities, Slow Money and a few others. What this means to me is: seeking to do everything at the right speed but also savouring the time we spend doing things. I never really adopt anything fully, I find the parts that speak to me and go with them.
I know the ‘mother’ side of me wants to enjoy the time spent with my children without worrying about the constant mess they are making or how they have yet again destroyed the living room. I want to enjoy my days off with my family without listening to my mobile’s constant ‘ding’. Those days are few and far between so when we do get them I don’t want to be stuck behind a laptop or having to squeeze in work. I don’t want to hit 50 and wonder where the years with my children are gone.
When we moved to the cottage the first thing we did was to build the raised beds and start to grow our own food. Both of my kids have spent their baby and toddler days in the garden and then in the kitchen preparing food. That paints a nice picture, doesn’t it? But some of those days are incredibly frustrating, trying to plant or the toddlers harvesting something that isn’t ready or them screaming because they can’t stir the pot on the gas burner. The idea though, the one that by slowing down and sharing these skills with them will not only bring us together as a family but teach them about their footprints on this earth.
Without realising it the core values that we loved about moving here got swept up in being busy and it happened so quickly that it is terrifying. This week I turned off the push notifications on my phone, I choose when to pull down my email and I took 30 minutes each morning to read something before getting up and facing the day. I went back to my slow cooker prep and increased the amount of meat-free meals in our weekly menu. I sat back and looked at everything from work to this blog and podcast to my parenting time and worked out what was important to me.
I’m doing my best to remember those things that make us happy as a family and trying to balance it with the tasks that need to be done. I hate the feeling of chasing my tail and being busy for no reason. From now on expect more posts on how we introduce slow methods into our life because if you don’t help keep me on track I will be right back to chasing my tail before Christmas. Do you implement aspects of Slow Living in your life already? How do you do it? LEt me know in the comments below.
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