Back

Slow | Day 4 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jan 4, 2023· 2 minutes
I do slow stuff, and there is no logic to it. I knit, and I play the handpan, and I draw, and I spend hours in the kitchen. I sit down to watch the colors of the sunset or paint the flowers in the garden. 

There is no logic in slow. It would be so much more rational to go for results, for efficiency, for achieving more, faster, better. 

But the thing is this: 

The irrational, intuitive presence is where real life is lived. The wine and the laughing and the warm sun rays on the cheeks, the days spent walking in nature, not going anywhere in particular, or the afternoons with the wool in my hands, or the drawings I sit with for hours while listening to Beethoven. Or the zen of cooking complicated meals. 

It is a trap we can all fall into, to think we need to be so organized, so structured, to have our finances and our workouts, and our carriers and our educations on a leash, making sure we get up early and work hard to achieve our goals on all levels. And then we run. We run and run and run. From the moment we wake up until the second we sleep. We run to tick all the boxes, to improve, to grow, to earn more, to learn more, and achieve more. 

Yet - we lose everything. In reality, the good life works the other way around. The structure, the focus, and the discipline are all servants of the good life. Of course, we need them, but we need them to make space for what is essential, to ensure we have time for sunsets, handmade presents, art, music, love, laughter, silence, and beauty. 

slow-collage

I am currently knitting a Hogwarts college pullover for my oldest son and more secret projects for others of my loved ones, which makes no sense. Yet I enjoy it immensely; it makes so much more sense than all the rational things I could have done. It makes sense in my heart and soul; that is where I want to live my life. 


Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

#4 of my 365 writing challenge - Read them all here

Ravenna showed up on our travel itinerary because of a Donald Duck story. It is funny how things are connected. Read more
We have crossed the mountains from the coast and sunshine to the coast, crossing a landscape of snow. And we lived in Sant’Oleo for three days lookin…Read more
We are grateful to have a life from which we do not need a pause. We have created and allowed ourselves a life with freedom enough to decide how we w…Read more
Traveling from Sicily to Copenhagen between the beginning of March and late May will give us three months of spring. Being Danish, escaping six month…Read more
As anarchists, we are not much for rules. As self-directed, we don’t do rules. The structure of a rule is not flexible and can never take into accoun…Read more
Crossing the Italian boot west to east was a humbling experience. I have said it before, but it is worth repeating. Mountains really are big. Read more
The secret room in the Archeological Museum of Naples has its own story. The Roman culture in Pompeii had a thing with the penis. Huge aroused ones a…Read more
It is important to remember to ask the question: What if it was easy? How would it look? Because easy is not impossible, very often, it is the first …Read more
Some days can be defined by a single moment. I will let this one stand with its rainbow. The day was packed, but the rainbow alone would have been en…Read more