Drop In!

Guest Writers

Greetings everyone!

I’m starting a new segment on Character Cognition called ‘Drop In!’

There are writers in my life who don’t yet publicly write. They aren’t on Substack, but I’m happy to host their writing! It’s a win-win. 

This is the first guest writer post, but likely will not be the last.

My wife Katherine penned this post! Enjoy : )

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Photo by Zachariah Smith on Unsplash

Slow living = chickens and fresh eggs

Slow living, it’s on the verge of becoming a buzzword, but I think that is because it is something we so greatly need right now.

We have all heard it and probably said it. Someone asks “How are you?” and you respond “I’m so busy right now!”

I challenge you to ask yourself, how much of your busyness is of your choosing versus how much is really necessary? I even read a few books about slow living, which led me to the conclusion that our slow living life should include chickens. In reality, this would likely be more work and less dreamy then I envision, but on our life quest for a more intentional and thoughtful way of living; chickens, fresh eggs, and the sounds of roosters crowing are still part of a future vision of what my life could look like. 

Putting the future aside, one thing that my family has been intentional about the last few months is how we spend our time. We have rejected that busyness is a badge of honor and that our kids will only thrive if they have the opportunity to do everything. I’m going to be honest,this is hard for me! For a long time I thought filling your time with activities meant you were accomplishing a lot.

I’m the person that when I have time to myself it’s great for about 45 minutes and then I don’t know what to do, and I’m looking for things to make me busy again.

Studies have shown your brain actually needs time to detach from the work that occupies your day, whether paid or unpaid. Sadly, that also means that if you have been staring at a screen all day, you need to consider another way for your brain to disconnect than bingeing Netflix. 

For my family, creating space to detach has meant canceling some of our kids' extracurricular activities, saying no to invitations, and stepping back from our own volunteer activities. In return we now have more time to go for family walks, to play together,  cook together, and for me to explore dreams that I never imagined I would act on.

Here I am writing a post to share, something I never would have considered attempting 2 years ago. I would be interested to know, what actions have you done or do you want to do to slow down? 

My husband and I have become more conscious and intentional to make sure the activities we participate in and the people we spend time with create edifying experiences. For me personally right now it means inviting my kids to do more everyday life things with me. I invite them into the kitchen to make food with me (spoiler, it can get really messy). It means sitting in the car on the way to gymnastics and finding a song my daughter likes so we can sing along, or asking her who has crushes on who at school right now. Gotta love those third grade love triangles.

Sometimes I love these things, sometimes it’s a disaster with all of us frustrated, but I don’t regret anything about our attempt to slow down. I am still on the journey for what it means to me to slow down, now and in the future. I still slip into overbooking us and worrying about the things we may miss out on, but I feel more grounded and content in the life we continue to create. I have found it helpful to ask myself three questions when choosing what to keep and what to cut out of our lives. 

1. Does this give me energy or take energy away? 

2. How do I feel afterwards and where in my body do I feel it?

3. What emotions do I feel before and after?  

Who knows, maybe someday for me slow living will include backyard chickens!