Allow Failure

We needed to live the fast life to understand why we needed to live a slower one. We needed to chase the wrong things, to learn the hard lessons the hard way. The falling nearly always comes before the learning, and sometimes, yes, even after the learning. It is an impossible step to skip.

Allow it. 

Learn from it. 

And re-learn from it again and again. 

Walk Ahead

Take one step, start small.

Experiment.

Ask yourself: What area of my life brings the most stress, currently? Get specific. 

What stumbling blocks are ahead? Move them, or move around them. Markus dreads picking up his clothes off the floor, so now he keeps a strict No Clothes In the Closet policy at home. Another thing he despises is mono, so he rewards himself with a gatorade a day for every day missed of school. 

Infuse tiny joys into your day in whatever way you can. You have far more power over this than you think.

Forget "but."

Sometimes I'm tempted to resist change because of the "but." 

But what will my family think? 

But what will my career look like?

But what if it's too hard? 

It is wise to survey the "but," to consider it a lesson in preparedness, to let it inform your plans. And then it is wise to proceed anyway.

Consider Your Compass

Life is immeasurable. 

With a path, that winds in the most unfathomable, incredible way.

Rather than setting a goal to encourage the arrival, consider setting a compass to encourage the journey. A compass guides graciously, rather than mandates mercilessly. It offers a gentle whisper that yes, you're headed in the right direction. It is ever-necessary in navigating your life with conviction and curiosity, rather than convention and conformity. Find your compass in something unchanging, something that you deem true and stable. (Markus' is here.)

NOTICE IT

The trick is to notice the feeling if you're not who you want to be, who is?

Live with the tension. 

Cozy up in the space in between: get comfortable with the discomfort. 

This is life, in all its glory. 

Do not numb it.

Do not wish it away hoping for days without hardship. Once you've noticed the chasm, you're well on your way to the good work; figuring out what it means to live a life that's ripe with limitations and riddled with lessons, but resounding in love. 

Connection

Slow Living is for connection

for having the space in our day to welcome an impromptu visit to the mall

for having the space in our mind to open the door to the car even though it's scary to let someone else drive.

It's thinking about the way we live, and asking ourselves why.

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And, of course we can do all this in any season, at any moment. 

But, if you feel buried, here's a shovel. 

Do not victimize yourself. 

You aren't buried alive until you're buried alive. Call it what it is: resist your urge to exaggerate your current state of living. Chances are, if you're reading this, you are noticing a bit of a chasm between the life you lead and the life you want to lead. Here's a secret: we all have this feeling. We all have this gap. There is nothing broken in me that isn't broken in everyone else. I've been conditioned to want something different than what I have been given. But, I've also learned that I have two choices: (1) Chase someday, or (2) Accept today. I have chosen the latter. I am here. I am breathing. I am alive. I am well(ish). For now. And for now, that is enough. 

Slow Lane

Two years ago, on a brightly lit screen in East Murray, I asked myself this:

How do you get off the phone and simply pay attention? 

Breathe. 

Surveying our lives, looking for triggers, inviting passion into the day. But of course there is more.

I'm a believer that living slowly is possible in any season. It takes lots of practice, to see past the mechanics of it all - to look at current circumstances and call the whole lot a gift. It takes practice to remind yourself that perfection is not just around the corner, that arrivals don't exist, that a better set of circumstances don't necessarily lead to a better life.

Slow living has never been about logistics. It's about linguistics.

The question then isn't about what slow living looks like, who can achieve it, how to master it, where to do it. The question isn't "What is slow living?" but instead is "What is slow living for?"

And the answer is simple: Each Other.

Sunset

Sunset