Slow Living

One of the best ways to think about slow living - is to plant a tree.  Then to participate in the growing and nurturing of that tree, season to season.

What is Slow Living?  Is it laziness to live a slow living life?

I think modern life and making a living - paying the bills - can shift our timescales and ourselves towards a more frantic short term mentality.  Without realising it - we can become someone who needs everything yesterday, who does not have time to wait.  Who requires an answer now.  I believe that nature and the seasons do not work to those timescales and that we can learn some valuable lessons from the natural world.

Slow living - rather than being in reaction mode - requires a measure of patience a yielding to and going with the seasons and what they bring.

Nurturing a bonsai for example or an apple tree - requires us to steward something and then perhaps hand it on to future generations.  Under those timescales - we may not have time to see the full bounty that the apple tree eventually gives - we are not allowed to see that.  Maybe by seeing our own lives from a generational perspective we can begin to build on a long term scale.  Lift our eyes to a long term outcome.

Slow living is taking a breath - asking ourselves is this important in the grand scale.

Here are a few suggestions to begin to foster a slow living mentality:

1)  Read a book for pleasure, perhaps to learn something new.  Treat yourself to that time for yourself.

2)  Take a walk in nature and listen to the sounds around you.  Take the time to look and see.  Maybe visit a church and sit for a while or walk around the church gardens noticing what has been planted there.

3)  Prioritise looking after some of the small things.  Work your garden - just for pleasure - just for the act of creation, without a monetary outcome.  Make a cup of tea mindfully and invest yourself in the process.  A simple act done without racing on to the next thing.

4)  Do something kind - that requires an investment of your time.  For example make a loaf of bread - and give it to a friend.  Anything perhaps that you enjoy, that takes time and effort to produce.  I like to give a plant to a friend - it captures and gives some of the love taken to nurture it.

5)  Put your phone away - maybe in your bedroom for the day, and spend the day apart from constant, instant accessibility.

6)  Make an appointment to see a family member or a friend.  Give them your time and take time to listen to whats going on in their life.

Slow living - is counter intuitive.  It can seem decadent and selfish, to look after ourselves and to slow our pace.  I would say that left to itself, modern life will push us to an unsustainable tempo.  We need to be constantly making a living or doing something productive.

Coming out of the winter season for me is a time of waiting and watching.  I feel an inner sense of agitation to be doing something 'productive'.  But I must realise that life has a rhythm and a tempo and that it is unwise not to heed those seasons.  Seasons that are not set by me.

Till next time - happy gardening.

With much love,

Sage. Xx

##############################################################################################

Spring is here.  And the garden will dry up, eventually the rain will stop!  Our gardens and plants will get into growing again soon.  If you would like my help in your garden this coming season - feel free to call me in.  We can work with your own unique plot, with whats there and to bring incremental changes and improvements over time.