“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
― Henry David Thoreau
When I was writing about my forthcoming yurt adventure, I hadn’t anticipated how much it would resonate with you.
But there seems to be a theme running through all of our new year plans and intentions lately – in many of the comments on Monday’s post, and in other conversations I’ve been having, I can’t help but notice how many of us are wanting to slow down.
And by slow down, I don’t think we literally want to start moving through life at a glacial pace – I think it’s more of an underlying desire to be more mindful of the smaller moments that make up each day.
I am the first one to admit that I live in the future – my mind is always thinking about the next destination, the next assignment, the next book project. I so often forget that the most important place for me to be is where I am right now. I spend so much time focusing on the big moments ahead – the meetings, the workshops, the stories and sketches I hope to publish – that I forget to focus on all the steps in between, the Slow Moments that actually make up our lives.
I think slowing down may look different for everyone. For my friends Steph and Tony, who are currently living in Saigon, it means deciding they don’t have to tick off every attraction and daytrip idea on their list and can simply enjoy being in Saigon, discovering the city one step at a time without getting caught up in a “frenzy of activity.”
For my friend Hannah, who is spending six months in rural France, it’s about making the time to bake, go for walks, and sketch. “I am still moving in the right direction,” Hannah recently wrote. “I have learnt that life tastes all the more sweet when you give it space to simply be, unaided or planned.”
And for me, it’s choosing to read a book over breakfast instead of checking my email (or more realistically, scrolling through Facebook).
It’s going for a walk in the gloaming hours of the afternoon.
Stopping by the dock I love. Listening to the reeds.
Looking for shapes in the ice.
It’s exactly what Thoreau says – finding your eternity in each moment. I love that he used a pronoun in front of eternity. It is our eternity, and it’s up to us to carve out a few minutes in each day to glimpse it.
I’m keeping today’s post short and sweet (for once!) because I have a little idea. I’d love to feature some of your own Slow Moments here over the next few weeks. If we start next Thursday, that’ll give us six Thursdays until I arrive at the yurt, which feels like a nice amount of time for such a project.
If you’d like to share your Slow Moment – any kind of moment where you’ve stepped out of the flow of your day and made a cup of tea, read a novel, built a fort with your kids, gone for a walk, etc. – then please send it to me via email to [email protected]. It can be a sentence, a short paragraph (or long one, if you’re feeling eloquent), and if you have a photo or two to go with it (or even a sketch), I’d love to include that with it as well. Every Thursday until the end of February, I’ll then round up the moments that have been sent in that week and share them here for a little collective inspiration.
As Thoreau so aptly says at the end of the quote I opened this post with: “There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
Whether we’re at home or on the road, here’s to making this life – and every day in it – count.
Beautifully penned. I spent the first 2 weeks of Jan slowing down in one of my favorite villages in northern Thailand – cycling, eating, and just soaking in the serenity. I’m still trying to tame my mind to live more in the moment, and not think about the next destination or project. Thanks Candace (and Thoreau) for this lovely reminder 🙂
Thanks so much, Shivya – I needed the reminder myself this week! And I absolutely loved following along your trip in Thailand – it looked like such a beautiful escape. I’d love to feature a photo or two from it in this week’s round-up, if you’d like 🙂 Those shots of you cycling through the countryside were divine!
I’m new to your site but I love what I’ve read so far. When we embarked last year on this new life of travel we set our intention to do it slowly whenever possible. We decided that although there is a whole world that we want to explore, it was more important to us that we take the time to really experience each place as fully as we can. This may not always be possible due to finances or schedule and it may mean that we don’t hit everywhere on our list. However we’d rather have a handful of well experienced destinations over a long list of places we can barely remember because we rushed from point to point trying to cram it all in..
Whether you’re a traveler, a stay at home Mom or CEO I believe we are all here on this earth to have experiences and to not slow down now and then and really live in the moment is denying ourselves our greatest gift as human beings.
Thanks for the lovely thought provoking post. I hope it inspires many to savor the moment!
Sarah, I can’t thank you enough for sharing your insights on travel and life here. I love your decision to focus on truly experiencing each destination you visit, rather than speeding through purely for the sake of a passport stamp or new country to add to your list. Although it can be fun to try and see as much as possible at first, after a while, I think we all start to crave what you’re describing…deep and meaningful connections with a place, which usually happens through sticking around long enough to form real relationships with the people there. I’m really glad you stumbled across my site this week, and I look forward to staying in touch 🙂
PS – Thank you again for sending in your slow moment…I’m excited to share it here soon!
LOVE the Slow Moment plan! I was so moved by your post (and Kim and Hannah and Stephs, etc) that I just posted my own blog about slowing down. This weekend, even with a writing deadline looming, and homework for my html class due, I am taking my husband and the dogs and some friends and going camping. Tomorrow, with a forecast of 55 and sunny at the Oregon coast (in JANUARY!!!) I am dealing with nothing more involved than sitting in the sun, taking long walks on the beach, and catching up with friends. I suspect you’ll be hearing from me with a report of the day 🙂
I LOVE your weekend plan, Rhonda! A camping adventure sounds like the perfect way to make time for slow moments, and yes, I absolutely expect a report on how it goes afterwards 😉 I especially love what you said about taking off even though you have a few approaching deadlines. I’ve found that if we were to wait for the to-do lists to be all checked off, chances are we’d never have time to slow down and rest. Have an amazing couple of days on the coast, and if you’d like, definitely send through a little update for this week’s round-up 🙂
I really enjoyed your post last Monday and this one feels like icing on a wonderful cake. After traveling at near breakneck speeds over the past five and a half months I am looking forward to heading home next month and finally slowing down. Although I’m still a bit conflicted, (who wants to ever stop traveling?) sometimes the need to slow down, to catch up, and to be present in the small moments in life is more important than checking another item off your bucket list. Thanks for the inspiring post!
I’m so glad these last two posts resonated with you, Calli! Although it’s awesome that you’ve been traveling so much these last few months, I so understand how nice it is to return home afterwards. Where exactly is home for you? I really hope the transition goes well for you, and that you’re able to dwell in the small slow moments that life gives you. PS – Feel free to send one through for a round-up here one week 🙂
Great idea Candace. Just the act of stopping to give thanks for whatever moment we are in makes the moment slower. I, too, have a desire to slow down (internally, mentally more than physically). I need to start looking for my moments to send to you!
Thanks so much, Kim! I loved what you said about gratitude making the moment slower – that’s a beautiful thought and I couldn’t agree more. I absolutely hope you’ll have a chance to send in a slow moment or two – I have a feeling your upcoming epic roadtrip will hold quite a few 🙂 xo
Live long, slow, and enjoy every moment. Love this post!
What you said, Nina 🙂 Those are definitely words to live by!
Another wonderful post and lovely idea! Thoreau’s words seemed a bit like the contour, but your words did fill it with lovely colours and life again… 🙂
It may sound a bit contradictory, but in our times of “forced fast forward” adapting to the pace of life actually means slowing down! We seem to chase time while moments fly by and become indistinct like a line of trees at the roadside as seen from the window of a speeding car…
I hope I will be able to pass a slow moment on to you at some point. Already looking forward to the collection of moments. Thanks again for the inspiration Candace!
Thanks so much for your kind words and insights, Oliver – it was great to hear from you again! I loved how you compared a fast-paced lifestyle to watching trees blur by from a car window…here’s to a year of slowing down and taking in each tree as it comes 🙂 Have a great week!
hey, candace; i did not know we had a go-slow project in common. mine has been running since i was ill in 2005, more or less successfully, tho some think it sloth. we are now researching and writing a book of hikes in the (remaining, for the present at least) countryside around istanbul, following on from establishing the evliya celebi way, and that’s a good gig for keeping sane and slow. forget fast!
Thanks so much for your comment, Caroline! I loved hearing that we’re both in search of slow moments this year, and it was especially interesting to learn about your current book project. I’d love to check out some of those hikes around Istanbul the next time I’m in Turkey!
Despite the fact that having a job and a personal life and having to deal with both of them at the same, in a crazy way, we should realize that fast may not be an advantage for us. Why not have a balanced life and enjoy the little details? Good luck with your project, Candace!
I love this, Irene! Thanks for sharing your insights here 🙂 I really appreciate your kind words, and wish you all the best for the new year!
Excellent. We are moving faster than we’ve ever moved before, but we’ll be heading to Australia in a few weeks where we’ll stay for a month. I’m so looking forward to being still for awhile. In the meantime, we’re finding the slow moments of each day rather than of the overarching week because that’s what we have right NOW.
I’m so glad to hear you’re looking for the slow moments in each day, Carmel…I’m the first to admit how hard that is to do, but I’m trying to start the new year being a little more present in each day – no matter where it finds me 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how things go in Australia, and I hope you’ll send in a slow moment or two!
Nicely written and love the project idea! Alas, my name and slow do not go well in a sentence together, but I look forward to reading how you and others do it 🙂
Thanks, Rebecca! I’m right there with you on slow not being something you’re used to, but I’m trying to take little steps to change that 🙂 Thanks again for reading, and have a great weekend!
I love this idea! It’s sparked a few writing ideas in my head as well. Wish I would’ve read this before the deadline, I would’ve loved to submit something.
xx
That’s wonderful to hear, Mariana! I would love to read some of your writing that’s been inspired by the series. And while I’m also sad you missed this current deadline, I’m thinking about running a second Slow Moments Project in the future (or another one like it), so I’ll be sure to let you know if and when I do 🙂 xx