Slower living in the dog days of summer
It’s now August, and late summer is doing that thing it does. The air feels thicker (and for many in the northern hemisphere, it’s also full of smoke). The days still feel plenty long, but off on the horizon somewhere, we can sense that fall is coming. Some of us have been observing Lughnasadh or Lammas, the “first harvest” festival: Lughnasadh is an ancient Gaelic festival with pagan origins. It combines a celebration of the first harvest of wheat with feats of athleticism and merriment, and is thought by some to be a sort of wake for the ending of summer.
We are still in the “dog days” of summer until about mid-August, where the hottest days of summer lurk, and the wildest thunderstorms, too. When it’s hot (and in many cases, humid) like this, rushing around tends to make everyone feel hotter. Which is why slower living at this time of year makes sense, though of course slower living makes sense all year round.
What I wish my sewing process looked like
What slower living means to me
Slower living means less time online, and more time in the real world, doing things that take a bit of time and effort.
My daughter and her family were away a couple weeks back, which meant I had no babysitting duties for a full week. I used that time to start a new sewing project, to work on jigsaw puzzles, to listen to Andy Serkis read me the first two books in the Lord Of the Rings, and to re-read a series of Lisa Kleypas books that I especially like (the Wallflowers, the Hathaways, and the Ravenels). My week was relaxing, unhurried, and entirely absorbing.
I have also spent more time with magical living: cleaning, drying and grinding them up in a mortar for use in my garden and to help protect my home. I did a complete energy cleansing of my entire house, using sound and incense and fresh air to move any stagnant energy. I made another spray bottle of cleanser, using homegrown rosemary, lemon peel, and white vinegar. And I cleaned and re-set my altar in my office . . . though now that I think of it, I still have to burn some herbs I was using to commune with my maternal ancestors.
For some people, slow living might mean harvesting lots of things from their gardens and canning or freezing them for the winter months ahead. Perhaps making jelly or salsa or pickles. Preserving things for the months ahead when our gardens are quieter. For others, slower living might look like time spent at the beach or hiking in the mountains or riding bikes.
On the one hand, some of those things require you to keep moving at a pretty decent pace, but they still constitute slower living because of the overall time and effort involved. They are all things we could have done pre-internet days, when life was considered “slower.”
If you feel like your days are rushing by
If you reach the end of the week, and it seems like you merely blinked and here you are, then that’s the sort of “days rushing by” that I’m referring to. If you think back over the week, and all you know for sure is that you went to work for five days, came home to sleep, and you did the regular chores along the way, then those are the sorts of “days rushing by” that I mean.
One of the reasons that life feels like it accelerates as we age is that so many of our days are essentially “the same.” We go to the same job using the same route, to the point that we might arrive at work or home and have no clear memory of our own drive, as if we had entered a fugue state. We spend our mornings and evenings at home in roughly the same way, so that all of those mornings and evenings blend into one. There’s no novelty.
This is even more true if one of the things you are doing in the morning and evening is falling into the apps on your phone, whether that’s social media, news reporting, or games. You open the phone to check the weather on the weather app and the next thing you know, more than an hour has passed and you have been scrolling Instagram or clicking from one news item to another.
By consciously choosing something slower, you are giving yourself time to notice things, and are (often) breaking the normal routine of your day. Plus, there’s often a real world dopamine payoff for you.
For instance, if you make homemade ice cream, it’s probably going to be a bit unusual for your day, it takes a bit of time, and you get ice cream at the end of it. If you bake, you get baked goods. If you cook, you end up with something to eat. If you garden, you end up with plants you can talk to, and, if you are lucky, with flowers to cut or fruits and vegetables to harvest.
If you sew, you end up with something to wear, or something that is otherwise useful (e.g., cloth napkins or new curtains or a stuffed toy or even a quilt). If you paint or use pastels or colored pencils, you wind up with artwork. And as Keats wrote, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
If you are a person who walks or cycles for exercise, varying your regular route will help to shake things up and give you better appreciation of things. New sights to see, and the need to pay more attention to the less familiar trail or the road, will keep your mind focused on what you’re doing, instead of allowing it to zone out. The same goes for your driving route to work, or to visit your parents, or what have you.
My slower Sunday
I wish I could tell you that I went from one productive, slower activity to another, but to be honest, I woke up feeling super achy due to my fibromyalgia and/or rheumatoid arthritis, so I legit snagged my phone out of the walk-in closet and climbed back into bed this morning, where I fell down the Instagram rabbit hole for two hours. Then I took a leisurely shower, which included washing and conditioning my hair (something I do only once a week these days), and enjoyed a breakfast of coffee (made by Morris) and a sticky bun that I bought at the local Amish farmer’s market the other day.
After that, I blew some cinnamon into my front door to welcome abundance(both because it’s Lughnasadh and the first Sunday of the month). Then I started some laundry, then sat down to finish a jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been working on for about a week. It’s a map of the Shire (from the Hobbit), and I was assembling it without referring to the puzzle box or enclosed illustration. Then I watched the Phillies-Orioles game on TV.
Now here I am, writing a newsletter about slow living (and getting off tech) while using tech and after having spent two hours this morning with my nose in my phone (with the television on). Next, I’ll be working on that sewing project. Don’t tell my daughter, but it’s going to be a fabric activity book for my grandbaby.
A work in progress
My slow plans for the week
I will be babysitting for my grandbaby for three days this week, which is its own form of slow living. While I am with them (and they are awake), I rarely use my phone, unless it’s to take a quick photo or video for myself. I believe our children deserve our undivided attention when we can give it to them, especially when they are young and constantly looking to us for confirmation or approval. (I do have plans to record their voice this week, because the way they say “oh no!” is precious and I want to wrap it up and keep it forever.)
I will continue to work on my sewing project, and pull out a new jigsaw puzzle. And come Wednesday, when my new billing month starts, I will start listening to the Return of the King on audiobook. I will likely finish my current book, Pride and Prejudice, which is a re-read for the 20-somethingth time. I always find something new, including what I think was the seed of the idea for Persuasion, and I find re-reading to be comforting.
And I will be harvesting more zucchini (for meals) and herbs (for drying and storing). I will be pulling out my tarot cards to get a reading for myself on the month, and to help me ponder an ongoing question I have about this business and website. And I will be looking for ways to add a bit more whimsy into my everyday life.