Day 127

I’m actually going out of town today! I haven’t been anywhere outside the routine for months. All the way to Brookings to take Cody to Dr. T. He is failing and I don’t want him to become more bewildered about what’s going on in his world. It will be hot today. Last week it poured like November and now it’s hotter than usual. No more normal weather. Hollie and I may go shopping if we feel like it.

July column for Senior News

While taking a vacation at home this summer, take a vacation from “fast.” Our culture seems to celebrate fast and the word is used frequently in all kinds of messages. Not only are we urged to use fast remedies for our ailments, we are supposed to shorten out words so we can speak our sentences fast. We use initials to identify lots of things with acronyms instead of full names. Texting has shortened spelling so we can communicate fast. We can stay in our cars and get our prescriptions fast, our money fast, our coffee fast, our fast food fast, and I’m wondering what to do with all that time I’m saving.

 My vacation at home will be using my shoes more often than my automobile. I am remembering that sitting is the new smoking: it is dangerous to our health. The goal of 10,000 steps a day can be achieved gradually by keeping track of my best days. I will not sit in a line of cars, using unnecessary expensive fuel, breathing exhaust fumes from the car ahead of me, and waiting for a product I could fix for myself at home for less money. I am planning to celebrate “slow.” Making a slow start from a stop sign saves fuel. Slowing down to stop saves fuel too. Making nutritious meals from the fresh foods I can buy after a slow walk around the farmers’ market will be good for my health so that maybe I won’t need the fast relief of advertised medicines.

I can take slow walks around town and poke my nose into shops that I have wanted to visit and haven’t taken the time to do so. I will take long leisurely walks in the park and at the beach using all my senses to take in the beauty that waiting for  slow enjoyment.  I’ll sit down and write real letters on paper to the people I want to keep in touch with personally not just in fast e-mail. I like finding a real letter in my mail box. Makes me smile a nice long slow smile. Hope I can do that for the friends who find me in their mail box. Notes and cards work well too. Just for fun not just for holidays and birthdays when they are expected.

Will you join me in celebrating slow? Think of new ways to use routine days that provide a complete experience, not an abbreviation.