Pendulum oak clock hangs on my wall. It once held a prominent place in my home growing up, right above the soft, mint green recliner that we liked to call the big chair.
A few years ago, my parents gifted it to me because they thought it matched the vintage style of my farmhouse. So I painted it with chalk paint and antiqued it with dark wax. Then I hung it up on the wall and turned the key to wind the gears.
The moment the pendulum started swinging again, a flood of memories swept back over me; the gentle tick tock still sounded exactly the same, exactly how I remember it.
Except it’s different now. The ticks tock faster than I remember.
Has time sped up or just my perception?
The tick tock of clocks and the rhythm of our heartbeats hurry us onward. Don’t waste a moment, they seem to say. For time is precious.
But how do you savor each moment when the clock keeps on ticking faster and there is never enough time?
How do you slow it all down, because all you’ve ever wanted is to live a life of meaning and purpose?
The answer lies not in slowing down clock pendulums…but in s l o w i n g d o w n y o u . . .
Slow your pace, slow your breath, slow your mind. From hurried to intentional. From frantic to gradual. Slow your gait and pay attention to each quiet footstep. Turn the doorknob, knead the bread, rinse your hands, and fold the towel–slower than you’re used to–as if each task were the most important in the world.
Live your life slowfully.
Slowing down seems like a completely counterintuitive solution, when the only way to get it all done is to speed up.
So maybe it’s time we stopped praising the rush, the busy, the too-full days. Maybe it’s time we crossed off our calendars all the extra and the superfluous, just until we felt space to breathe again.
And if the day is too crammed, push back some of those to-do’s til tomorrow–especially the things that don’t matter so much.
Pare down your priorities until only the people and projects that matter the very most occupy the greatest real estate on your day planner. Then cut out or limit the rest.
But what if you’ve done all this? I have; too many times to count. That’s when I remind myself to begin again to slow my pace. Slow my breath. Slow my mind. Slow my movements the best that I can.
The clock keeps on ticking. But now I have something to say back. Slowful is the way.
