‘Tooni Musing – Life in The Slowwww Lane
I had a Friday ‘tooni post all ready to go, talking (ranting?) about toxic people…and then I woke up this morning, looked out on the snow-covered mountains (and the black plastic bags I’d put over my peach trees twigs last night) and decided….nahhhh, not in the mood to talk about toxic people. Lord knows, they’ll always be around.
I’ve got a sign on the table in my den, which looks out on my – um – “vast estates” (rose bushes, the aforementioned peach twigs, and bird feeders…) which says, “Life is too short to be in a hurry.” – Thoreau.
Thoreau’s mother might have had a different perspective, since he wasn’t exactly roughing it out at Walden Pond. He walked home for his meals (which she cooked) and dear ol’ Mom was also still doing the cleaning and laundry. So he had a lot of free time to think great thoughts.
All that said, life is too short to always be rushing around. You miss a lot when you’re driving maximum speed all the time (particularly when you’re not really sure where you’re headed in the first place.)
I’ve been living life in the slow lane (or trying to) since I moved to New Mexico eight years ago. Sure, I’ve got busy – even overwhelming – days, but overall, I’ve slowed down a lot. I work at home (thanks Oh Great Technology Gods!); I take long “nonproductive” walks; I go for meandering Sunday drives on the back roads; I bake from scratch; I do more volunteer work; I’ve fallen victim to that most cheerful form of insanity, gardening.
I estimate it’s worth at least $100K a year in lost revenues to me to NOT work (and travel) all the time…so I can enjoy living here – including that view of my “vast estates” every morning as I drink my coffee, made fresh in my french press (and browse through gardening catalogues.) The first summer I lived here, I had a high-dollar consulting gig in Atlanta…I spent a total of about 8 days at home that summer. Rush. rush. rush. Fly home on Friday night. Do laundry. Fly back out on Sunday morning. Insane! When they called with another gig, I turned it down…I was planning to take ski lessons.
Of course my “slow” may well be your “deadly boring.” And, that’s fine. Start talking about golf or basketball, for example, and I’m head down on the table in about two minutes…Zzzzzzzzzz (Is there some sort of big b-ball thing going on???) Life is also too short for us to be living to other people’s specifications of fun, success or happiness.
Now, I’ve got to go refill my coffee cup and then – yes – do some “real” work. Happy Friday!
Sort-of-Related Post: Don’t Cry Because It’s Over. My Friday guest post at Lipsticking.
Tags: Mary Schmidt, happiness, perspective, the slow life
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I woke up to the snow too, Mary. Up here in Bernalillo, New Mexico, (just 20 minutes north of Albuquerque, for the rest of you) we had about an inch of the white stuff in splotches in the yard, and covering cars, rooftops and the tops of walls. WOW!
There’s nothing like a good snowfall to pull you out of your normal thought processes and remind you to slow down and enjoy life. I’m looking out on my snowy back yard — and the white Sandia mountains beyond — and I think you wrote the perfect post for the day.
Now I’ll slowly get started on work for the day. Thanks.
Thanks, Ted, for dropping by.
Yep, I love the snow…but I am a little bummed that my biggest clump of hollyhocks is looking so sad and frozen. Ah well. You can’t kill those things short of using kersonene and matches. They’ll be blooming like crazy in another couple of weeks.
And, hey! it’s snowing again up in the mountains!
Yeah, we’re getting a decent snowfall right now here in Bernalillo, even as the sun shines. What the heck???
And don’t worry about those hollyhocks. At one time I had some that I thought were weeds. I did everything I could to kill them, before giving up, letting them grown and bloom, and being very glad I did.