Slow

The cashier packing up my groceries was doing a slow, careful and methodical job. In my mind I was like, "OH MY GOSH! COULD YOU POSSIBLY GO ANY SLOWER!?!"

Then I caught myself.

So what if she goes slow? I wasn't even in a hurry for any reason. The slowness was just bugging me. Once I caught myself I realized two things. First off, she's probably doing a better than average job of packing the groceries, and secondly it was kind of calming to watch someone who seemed slow and peaceful at her work. Calming and rare.

Why do I insist on living life at warp speed? What's wrong with me?

Blah

Rob made this on his computer with his new drawing toy. I'm not sure what the drawing is exactly, but it looks kind of cool. Apparently it's entitled "Blah".

Mach 7

I always feel like I have a million things to do and they need to all be done NOW! I'm running in six directions at once - listening, talking, making lunch while I know the dryer's done and if I don't get the laundry folded in the next two minutes - but the girls need help getting their shoes off, and are freaking out, then the phone rings. I'm never going to get to that project I wanted to do today. Run! Run! Faster! Faster!

You know what? I concede the race. I can't win, so I give up. And today I tried to intentionally move a little slower all day, doing everything. I stepped on every step going down the stairs. I put one thing away at a time, after breakfast, slowly. As I consciously chewed my food at lunch it occurred to me I must swallow my food whole half the time. I think I got as much done, but was hopefully a little less tightly wound. I felt a bit more at ease.

There's an exercise - we did it in drama in school, but I've heard of it in a spiritual discipline/experiencing life kind of way - where you intentionally walk somewhere as slow as you possibly can. I mean if you could walk any slower, you're going too fast. It does weird things to your psyche. At first it's aggravating (Ahhh! This is taking for ever! It's a waist of time!), then it's interesting, calming and usually ends up being energizing.

I think I'll try it again one day. If I get time.

Generic Update

I haven't had any profound blog inspiration. I thought I'd give an update on life. Life's pretty good. Halloween was fun. Emily was Snow White and Kaylee was Spider Man. We spent last weekend at the Lake, but Rob and I both had colds. It was chilly and foggy, but nice to spend quiet time by the fire, playing games and reading.

Tuesday was a day off for Remembrance Day and Jan took the girls for a sleepover Monday night and all day Tuesday which gave Rob & I some time to ourselves. We went to the store and bought ice skates.

Dad's house is still under renovations. Shannon & Will have done a ton of work recently and Rob & I will spend some time there this weekend. I'm encouraged that we seem to be ahead of schedule. We were able to get the 2008 property taxes reduced on Dad's house. We had to actually defend our case at a hearing which was interesting. It also felt strange defending against The City. I'm with The City! I had the same pass card clipped to my waist and the guy that was presenting on behalf of The City - against us! Anyhow, we got what we asked for, so that was good.

I think that's about all I got for now. I'll shoot for greater profundity next time.