(no subject)

[elainegrey]

Grumbles: Mr M and i tried sharing a pillow in the early hours this morning. I suspect Mr M had been sleeping there while i was gone. Neck and back say ouch this morning. * * * I overbrewed the tea this morning. Blech. Fortunately i poured off a cup for Christine first thing. * * * I slammed my chest into a metal display hook, reaching for something at the grocery yesterday. Nothing was on the hook and the end got me right in the center of my sternum. Still hurts this morning. Curses.

I posted this reflection on recovering from being too busy (and resources for recovering and slowing down) to the meeting email list this morning:

During the worship sharing in meeting for business yesterday, one Friend spoke about the issues of over-work, of how many of us may be in jobs that demand we increase efficiency (in the jargon of my workplace, velocity) and how this is part of the "too busy" aspect of our lives.

I recalled in the 90's hearing about "Take Back Your Time Day" http://www.timeday.org/ -- a project still going on:

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment. -- October 24th Is Take Back Your Time Day

I read the periodic newsletter of the author of "Slow Time" http://www.livinginseason.com/store/books/ because the author advocates a practice i discovered for myself, recognizing the changing seasons and how they affect my energy and gifts (not a stretch for someone with Seasonal Affective Disorder like myself):

Slow Time is The Artist’s Way for time: a workbook offering twelve weeks of reflections, stories and playful exercises to help readers transforms their relationship with time. The book shows readers how to jump off the hamster wheel of artificial time and experience the flow and the rhythm of natural time.

Indeed there is a whole "Slow Movement" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement

Professor Guttorm Fløistad summarizes the philosophy, stating:
The only thing for certain is that everything changes. The rate of change increases. If you want to hang on you better speed up. That is the message of today. It could however be useful to remind everyone that our basic needs never change. The need to be seen and appreciated! It is the need to belong. The need for nearness and care, and for a little love! This is given only through slowness in human relations. In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection and togetherness. There we will find real renewal.

For me, winter is very slow. It's a time to say "no" to some things, a time to just sit on decisions. One year i was struggling with a decision, and i decided i would just hold it through the winter months. A month before the deadline i'd set for myself, when i would re-engage with the decision, i became aware i'd made the decision. It unfolded like a seed underground, and the clarity was like that of spring: i would choose this, because i valued that, and it was more important than this other thing. As long as that was in place, i would risk the other things.

It's part of my experience of winter as a slow time, a time to not commit but be, that i thought the Warm Winter Nights would be a pleasant way to share the sense of slow. For myself, there's mending and handwork and little tasks that need to be done in the dark evenings that call for my attention. It seemed sharing that time of doing things that are portable and possible to do in companionship was a way to be present in a slow way, being together.

While i was in Ohio i did a private entry evaluating time goals for the next quarter and half year. I will be trying to not take vacation for a while as a form of savings and to take a bit longer off in February. During a meeting i wrote out some goals for myself, for F&F, for work, for community. It's a little daunting to look at in parallel (as well as out of focus), but there it is.



Busy days ahead, i think, and then ponder how to frame this in slow time terms.