The Slow Movement

I have always valued time more than money and as I get older this becomes more true. Perhaps it's just supply and demand - I mean obviously I now have less years ahead of me, so I value it more. But it's not just that. And, it's not just time "to smell the roses", although that is nice too.

It's living at what I think of as 'human speed' - that speed at which we all live and work best. In our own time, our own pace and time enough to do it right. Multi-tasking, although it is worn proudly, is just another way to waste life. You become so splintered that you cannot devote the time you need to focus your best self on what you are doing. How can giving just a part of you to each task be good?
You dont even have a chance of being creative because that requires attention, full attention.

I have read that as our world becomes more populated, new technology breeds more technology. The technology forces us to multi-task. We are pushed to commercialize, to monetize, to improve each and every thing we do in the name of efficiency and profit. It really doesnt save us time to complicate our lives - it speeds things up to the point that we arent really living life. It then becomes a virtual world that we inhabit through our gadgets and technology. Is this how we want to live?

It's not just slow food we need. It's slower motion (walking vesus driving) that allows us to breath, surprises us with meeting something or someone new, it's slower talking that allows us to think about and absorb what the other person is saying, and it's slower living that allows us time off to live in the moment. To putter, to think, to enjoy and just to be. I walk to absorb life - both mine and the life around me. It gives me the time to observe and reflect - to chew on a thought. And it only takes a pair of shoes.