I'm at the very end of a very long process: getting our individual and joint paperwork organized, up-to-date, pared down, and filed in logical and retrievable ways. I've been working on the last 2% of this process -- you know, the part of every process that seems to take more time and focus than the previous 98% -- since April. Working magic, working my brain, working my body to get this done! The deaths of Cobi and
Is. and all that came with (especially the depression) slowed me down, as did bouts of resistance. When I missed my deadline (Lammas), I put away all my beading tools and supplies, fun distraction that beading is, and have been slogging away at this work until almost all of the resistance is gone and the end is in sight.
I don't like doing this work, but I don't like living a life where it's undone....
The paperwork backlog is due to lots of things besides dislike for doing it, things that can be boiled down to these two: being disabled, and being too busy for my own good, despite disability.
Even disabled, I have
more energy than most people. Unfortunately, I can no longer use it (or misuse it), in primarily physical ways. There's some good in that, no doubt. Slowing down is what has allowed me to develop meditation and contemplative practices, to develop an intimate relationship with Mother Earth as she expresses herself around me, to develop my creativity, to define my priestess path.
I spent some time this week looking at various zines and their book reviews in anticipation of changes in my own
zine. Our next issue will start our fourth year, and I'm stirring redesign and expansion schemes in the cauldron. Very exciting!
I was looking at reviews for format, and word count, and other specs, when I came across a review I read in entirety:
IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed at
Yes! Magazine, the publication of the
Positive Futures Network.
Here are some tidbits from the review:
Slower living builds community, which creates a sense of belonging and calms people down.
Work has spilled into our personal time. It used to be only “workaholics” worked anytime, anyplace. Now it’s common—and expected—that we work 24/7.
One result is that we don’t reflect—we react. Fast Thinking, which is linear and logical, is what we do under time pressure. Slow Thinking, which we do in the shower or walking the beach, results in insight and creative epiphanies. Slow Thinking, in other words, is unpredictable. Free.
Now reading this was sort of like being a choir member, and being preached at, yet it was also validation and a reminder. As slowed down as my life is, in some regards, I still have a long way to go to really living from my own center.
For example, I was asked to do three things for Madison's upcoming
Pagan Pride Day. I did at first say
no to all three, yet well-meaning, persistent, persuasive friends have talked me into a
yes on two of them: doing a presentation (
Nobody Wins in the Witch Wars!), and leading the pre-ritual drumming. I'll enjoy doing both, and hanging out at the beautiful park all day (I may even split a table with a friend and read cards). Yes, I'll enjoy all of that. But I said no because I had other things on my plate, and had just finished spending a lot of time and energy doing some teaching/presenting and community work.
I suppose it's a matter of balance. And when it comes to the pace and activities of our lives,
IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS promises both information about how we got out of balance in this area and also models and inspiration for rethinking and rebalancing.
The work of the Positive Futures Network is to give visibility and momentum to ... signs of an emerging society in which life, not money, is what counts; in which everyone matters; and in which vibrant, inclusive communities offer prosperity, security, and meaningful ways of life.
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