In Pursuit of Slow

I dislike being busy, hectic, living the fast lane, whatever you want to call it. I don’t like feeling like I am at the end of my rope, with so much to stuff in my brain that things fall out. Important things, like commitments and school…

Anyway, suffice to say that I don’t like living the fast life. I like the slow life. But it is one thing to say it, and another thing to actually live it. It’s easy to say that I like evenings at home, and not as easy to say ‘no’ to social events. I love slow mornings, but I don’t always wake up early enough to have them.

Recently, I was challenged to take charge of my schedule and stop living the busy life, which can be detrimental to relationships, mental health, and overall well being. If I am always rushing around doing things, I am not here, present, soaking in the moment. If I am always thinking about the next event I need to get to on time, I am not investing the relationships that are right in front of me.

So I have decided to do the hard work to create the life I want to live, which happens to be a slow one.

Step One: Decide what my priorities are. Together my husband and I made a list of things that were most important to us, and what we would prioritize first. Our marriage was at the top of the list. Then family, our church community, and then friends. I added some personal priorities to the list, such as school, but for the most part we have the same list. From that list we decided where we would spend our time from week to week.

Step Two: Schedule priorities first. Our small group, family events, and church are the first things to be put on our calendar. I then set aside time for school work. (on my good days that is, sometimes I just cram it into wherever it fits because I am sick of writing papers) After that, we plan social events because we love spending time with people.

Step Three: Intentionally plan off days. I didn’t learn this till last week. Basically, on my calendar there was a day that said ‘no plans’ last week. I wasn’t allowed to plan anything on that day. No social events, no big projects. Just me, my husband, and any cleaning that needed to be done. But honestly, I could even put that off for another day. It was a day to just be, an evening to relax after work. I loved it. Now I try to plan one a week. One evening out of the week where I have time to just hang out with the person I married and do whatever we feel like doing. Whether that be reading books to each other or watching a cute movie, it is our evening.

I am only beginning my journey to find a slow life. It takes intention. I don’t slip into this, I have to work for it. But I think the work will be worth it in the long run. It already is. I have found space to breath in my life, space to pick up the book I have been meaning to read, and space to foster the relationships I treasure.

Shaina Merrick