Living Slowly

A couple of weeks ago, Tsh, over on Simple Mom, wrote a post about living slowly.  She asked her readers to ponder some questions:

1.  What does living slowly mean to you?  How would you define it?
2.  What is one thing you would add to your life if you had spare time?
3.  If you could say 'no' to an obligation, what would it be?

So this post has been percolating in my mind for awhile, since I had no time to sit down and write all that has been going on in my life until this very week.  This post was meant for me!!  This May has been the craziest one yet - yet living slowly is all I want - it is the key to my personal happiness.

1.  How would I define living slowly?

Not living by a schedule.  Oh how I wish I didn't have to be a slave to a schedule.  I'm not talking about the internal family schedule - like doing chores and schoolwork - that is what keeps our family life sane and gives us structure.  It's when the busy outside schedule messes with the internal schedule, that all hell breaks loose.  The outside schedule is the classes, meetings, field trips, errands that have to be done by such-and-such a date, appointments, scouts, playdates, MNO's and so forth.  Don't get me wrong - each and every one of those 'things' are important in their own right.  But lately it has been too much of a good thing.

I relish the days that we can move about our day with no need to be constantly looking at the clock.  That if we want to meander, we can.  If I want to deviate from our plan of action for the day, we can.  An exceptionally beautiful day means that we can ditch the books and go enjoy some time outside.

Living slowly means that the kids can have long, extended play sessions (where true creativity and problem-solving happens).  That I can get lost in a book.  That I can do a load of laundry and see it all the way through - from start to finish.  That I can bake an impromptu batch of cookies.

2.  What is one thing that I would add to my life if I had spare time?

Art classes.  I have no artistic skill, but that is not what I am after.  It's the way I get lost in what I am doing that I lust after.  It sort of feels like a drug.  When I am painting or sculpting or whatever, I am completely and utterly absorbed in what I am doing.  When I live 99.9% of my life with the constant distraction of multiple things going on at the same, a chance to focus on a single task is my mental refuge.

3.  If I could say 'no' to an obligation, what would it be?

Laundry?  Dishes?

Seriously, if I could say 'no' to something it would be scouts.  And I just did that - so I hope things get better.  I can't even begin to relate how frustrating it is to coordinate a group of individuals who all have different levels of personal commitment.

Another obligation that I have considered saying 'no' to was our homeschooling group.  We have been through a very rough couple of years.  Out of our current membership of 150 families, I am in regular contact with about 10?  15?  The rest we never see or hear from unless there is something they don't like.  I resent the apathy in our group.  We have recently gone from loosely organized to incorporating into a non-profit and forming a Board.  I am now on a board of nine members as one of a team of two that manages the membership aspects of the group.  This will increase my time commitment, but it will be no where near what scouts was requiring.  It also means that I work with just the board - all ladies that I know pretty well and have a great deal of respect for.  And we have a common, unified goal - and we are all pretty committed to pulling our group up by the bootstraps and creating a better entity in the interest in serving our local homeschooling community.  That is something I can truly commit to without resentment.  But I wholeheartedly say 'no' to the obligation that our board has to organize and 'entertain' the membership.  I won't do it.  Lots of the families are in the group for only one thing: social opportunities for their kids.  In and of itself that is not a bad thing, but it's the ones that EXPECT things to fall into their lap.  There is no initiative on their part to plan things or create things for the kids to do.  I organized several field trips a few years back and then just burned out.  It was too much work and homeschoolers are notorious for signing up and then not showing up.

So on this day I am glad to put the busiest month of the year to rest.  I am so thankful that June is here, and we can look forward to living more slowly.

How about you?  How would you answer these questions?