Stepping Back and Slowing Down

I decided that it was time to step back from the election craziness and take a day or two to bring my blood pressure down, and ground myself. I was thinking about how things seem to be moving faster and faster never taking time to stop and give ourselves time to experience the now before seeing how quickly we can move into whatever comes next our lives. I started thinking about this when a book I ordered from Kindle was not the one I was expecting. Yes, that is one example of everything speeding up - ordering books on-line instead of shopping for them in our local bookstore (when we can find one). In any case, I was expecting a very recently written biography of Charlotte Bronte, that went into their interpersonal relationships, and the possibility mental illness way have played a part,but instead got one written in the style of Charles Dickens or Nathanial Hawthorn. I started to read it ( I'm one of those people who pretty much read anything that pops up in front of my eyes). I thought that the author had an unusual way of starting - by dropping into this old style - and was eager to see how he how he would do it. As soon as I started, I began to feel different. I usually read very quickly - a book in a day or three - but I couldn't do it with this one. The language was more old fashioned, flowery, grammatically correct, and soon I was totally drawn totally into the scene into the old English countryside of the early 1800's. I knew I was not going to finish this book in a day, and suddenly it made me feel much calmer. I didn't feel so rushed to turn the next page. There was time to relax and enjoy and let myself be drawn into the story. I even starting reading part of it alouI'm d to slow down and give myself longer to enjoy the story - to enjoy the way the words flowed together. The world - everything - seems to be speeding up, to be confronting us on every side without ever letting us adjust to what we have just experienced. Therapists, personal growth leaders, motivational speakers, social workers - all advise us to learn to live in the "now", but is this possible with the speed at which changes assault us at every turn? Reading this book is reminding me of how much pleasure there is in reading when you allow yourself to be drawn into what is happening instead of hurrying to flip the next page. When you walk, walk slow. Stop and look around. and let yourself recognize that you are a part of it all. Notice a flower or a leaf or a butterfly, or even an interesting pattern in the cracks in the sidewalk. When you drive, stay off the Interstates. Take the "blue roads" and drive at 55, or, better yet, 40 so you can see towns, trees, fields and woods, and know that those people have their own lives and stories and that you are a part of them, as well. At least for me, this helps me to keep in the "now", and gives me practice in controlling the rate at which I react to the constant changes surrounding us all. One major way that things are speeding up now is with "new and improved: products. Electronic devices especially are modified and speeded up to the point that the device you are trying to master has been outmoded and updated at least twice. After you master the device, if it ever needs repair, it will be so outmoded that it will not be possible to repair, It will need to be replaced, and it will generally cost significantly more for new apps and greater speed that you neither want nor need, but will often have to learn and use. I don't know. Maybe it's just old age, maybe I'm just being nostalgic, and sad that there are so many people who will never be able to experience the joy of living in a time that doesn't push us as this one does. This one has been a little philosophical, maybe because I'm giving myself a break from speaking oat about my concerns about our political process. That'll be for another day.