Five Quick Things 013
In Which I Long for Slowness
For twenty years, I’ve wrestled with living a life of simplicity. It comes in waves; for months we do a great job of simplifying. Purging unnecessary things in our lives. Things like cable, store-bought snacks, books we’re never going to read. But when life gets busy, simplicity becomes harder to achieve. The simple life means eating out less and using the library more. It means slowing down to a pace that allows us to notice the subtle things around us.
Our May calendar is completely full. There’s not a single blank day on it. But everything inside me is screaming “Slow down. It’s Spring. It’s time to notice.” I have so many more thoughts on finding simplicity, but I’ll have to save them until there’s blank space on the calendar to write. For now, here are five things helping me slow down even though life feels like a spinning top.
If you regularly read my writings, but aren’t already a paid subscriber, would you consider becoming an Insider? Every single penny I receive from your subscriptions goes towards my writing costs.
One App to Pray With
I rediscovered Pray As You Go last month and I forgot how much I love it. I’d love to use it in a quiet space where I can close my eyes, listening and writing as I reflect, but this season of life is a lot of time in the car. So I’ve been playing it instead of an audiobook when driving alone. Occasionally I’ll get 15 minutes alone in a parking lot. Whenever I do use it, I feel a little more grounded and my head a little less spinny.
One Album To Listen To
I discovered this album thanks to Pray As You Go, and I can’t get enough of it. It’s reminding me to stop and pay attention to the little things happening around me, and to be mindful of our over-consumption.
One Journal Prompt For the Week
In an essay I wrote for Literary Mama last month, I wrote: “These are the memory keeping years. The note-taking years.” In that vein, I am loving this journal prompt right now. Cheers to writing it all down and making sense of it later!
One Book To Savor
I’m still slowly making my way through Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful. It is some of the best writing I’ve read this year. She does so well what I want to do: take a heartbreaking experience and break it down into a journey that doesn’t call names or place blame. It simply shares a story of brokenness and redemption.
One Meal for This Week’s Meal Plan
We got home from a dance competition Sunday night right at dinnertime to find seven stalks of asparagus ready to be cut. I combined them with some bok choy to make this Turmeric Black Pepper Chicken with Asparagus and served it over rice ramen noodles. It was the perfect fast meal that also allowed us to enjoy the very best that our home garden has to offer this time of year.
May you find moments of slow in your days over the coming weeks.
Until next time,
