savouring simplicity
Everything stopped. Reflecting on Life Pre-Pause this whole thing seems like it was inevitable. The quickness of life had peaked. The go-go-go-ness of it all — it wasn’t sustainable.
Every weekend for the foreseeable future was booked. Every hour committed and accounted for. Life was scheduled and running on autopilot. And then — pause. Everything opened up indefinitely. There’s time. There’s wonder, curiosity, creativity, hope… Aside from the very obvious negative effects of the virus (loved ones being sick/at risk, businesses forced to halt, people losing their livelihoods) there have been countless positive impacts on my life.
The JUICY slowness — I can’t get enough. This time has made me question my lifestyle choices. What is essential? What matters? Right now, we’re so closed off but we’re more connected than ever. What does this mean of our previous life? There’s finally time to sit, to reflect, to journal, to fuel my body with what it wants. To figure out what it wants. What IS important to me? What do I truly enjoy doing. What are my interests. What am I doing with my life. What do I want to do with my life. There’s time to dream, to actually reflect without being able to make impulse decisions because you can’t act on it, it’s genuine wondering and seeing how you feel about things. No rash decisions can be made in quarantine. It’s a beautiful thing.
This time has taught me how abundantly happy I am with so little. From wearing almost the same thing for weeks on end to only spending money on groceries. It’s taught me how much I enjoy a simple daily routine in a clean and cozy home.
The next inevitable — what happens when the world presses play? I’m anxious about it. Nervous that when it happens I and everyone else will forget this time, we’ll lose sight of this slow perspective. We’ll go back to how it was without thinking.
So, I’ve written a letter to myself incase this happens:
Hi future me, if you’re reading this it means you were swirled back into the swing of speedy times. It means you may have lost sight of all the groundwork + juicy self knowledge we discovered when the world was on fire but slowed down. That’s okay though — we were scared this would happen but we have a plan. How clever of us. We wrote down some reminders to pull you back into our savouring simplicity mentality. So let’s hop to them and hopefully pull you back.
Remember that there were mornings at the lake where you woke up to the sounds of birds and frogs.
You were happy to do the bare minimum because it gave you time to dream of the rest of your life and what you wanted to accomplish.
With no commute you had time in the morning for your extracurriculars. For yourself. For walks with P.
As I/you write this you feel calm and in control. You’re not stretched too thin and yet you’re doing so much.
Life is so slow and simple and yet it has never felt so full and abundant.
You weren’t stressed about money, if anything you were excited because for the first time in a while it felt plentiful — your current cash was in your pocket and no future cash had been spent. You were saving money for future you and you had fun dreaming about what you wanted to spend it on.
When everything stopped, you felt relief: no commitments, every weekend opened up and you did what you wanted. Which was absolutely nothing. Try it. You were happy.
You missed HUGS — so hug your loved ones and remember the time you weren’t allowed to.
You were amazed by the sound of nature and embarrassed that you lost sight of its strength.
You questioned your lifestyle choices and discovered what was essential and what actually mattered.
You didn’t feel guilt for saying no to things.
You had time to dream of what you actually wanted to do. Do that again. Sit with no time constraints and think, write, reflect.
This time has given you clarity, perspective and focus. Life is simple and slow but it’s never felt so full and clear. What is important is obvious.