Week Three: SLOW

When Carl Honore started speaking about the idea of slow I completely tuned him out. Already, after sitting in class for less than five minutes I was quickly onto the next thing in my head. I ran through it over and over; I need to stop by Crosby, my Hunters are probably in my mailbox. Then the COG with Blakely, but I need to eat fast because I need to get all of my history and criminal justice homework done before Campus Kids. After Campus Kids I need to make sure I make dinner before going to Tim Wise or else I will not be listening to him, oh, Revenge is on tonight, are the girls watching? Should I skype my sister after?

STOP.

Did Carl just say that speedy living does damage to our relationships and our work? That is the sentence that really made me stop, slow down, and think really hard about what that meant. The list I had just been reeling through in my head became a prime example of exactly what he was saying and I blushed at having done exactly what he was advocating against in the midst of his words. I do not think my mailbox would have taken much offense to me speeding to get my mail, but my lunch with Blakely should not have been looked at as a check off. Yeah, I do this every day with her after class, but it is one of the only times I have to connect with her without our whole floor being present and I should take advantage of that. So, then what? I was going to try and get through reading for two classes and two assignments in two hours? That is not possible, but I had been looking at it as a challenge that I could overcome when in reality it would mean skimming instead of engaging and halfheartedly writing my feelings on these subjects instead of reaching beneath the surface. Jessica, my Campus Kids mentee, is the highlight of my week every week. Although it may be difficult to rally after four classes seeing her face is enough to make me smile the rest of the week. I should not be looking at that as an obstacle, it is a privilege. I went through the rest of my list becoming more and more aware of my lack of awareness.

The point is that Carl is right. If we do not slow down and take advantage of watching, listening, loving, thinking, anything, then when we look back on things what are we going to remember? Chances are we would not even take the time to reflect. We live in a world of speed and we cannot do too much about it. The iPhone will always get faster and the internet will someday appear on command powered by thought...it sounds scary. So what are we really avoiding? I think he hit it right on the marker when he said that thinking and processing takes too long so we avoid it, I would like to add that its hard sometimes too. Muddling through thoughts, feelings, emotions we cannot explain are hard to take time and think about. Because guess what, someone might not have an answer. And in our fast paced worlds where we expect things to evolve quickly and efficiently answers are not as abundant, so we stick to what we know.

So, think. Slowing down allows for us to be better at what really matters. Practice makes perfect, so practice slowing down. I am going to. It goes hand in hand with my first in class writing reflection, I need to take the time to slow down and care, why don't you?

This picture was taken on New Years eve in Mexico on my family's annual Cabo trip. All 30 of us make the trip in order to catch up and enjoy each other. We take this time to slow down and reconnect with each other when in real life we would be in our own worlds. Slowing down this trip allowed for me to watch my cousin Chloe learn to walk, play countless games of catch with Colin, and play princesses, hide and seek, water monsters, and mermaids with my other 17 cousins. This is a time we all count down to because when it comes down to it, we miss each other.