n this age of acceleration, we are sacrificing our lives to speed. The fast lane has become the norm as we hurry to fit everything into our days. Life is short, we say; time is the enemy.
The enemy is in fact, the abnormal rhythms by which we are living our lives. We have lost our sense of time, having become obsessed with speed and efficiency. How often do you tell yourself you don't have enough time?
I believe people crave a sense of slowness, of making time for the things that matter most to us. And summer is a season which, despite its linear brevity, seems to elicit a slower pace. It speaks to us of time off, relaxing warmth, rest and dreaming, creative nothingness.
To be slow is not to be stupid or inefficient. To be slow means that you regain a sense of your natural rhythms, that you decide how fast you wish to go. It's about learning to give time to the things that are important to you. This means, of course, that you must think about what you enjoy, must know how you wish to spend your time.
This summer, when you have moments of respite from your fast life, you might want to reflect on how you use your time. Practice consciously creating islands of slowness in your days which you can carry over into your everyday life the rest of the year.
Time is a finite resource with infinite demands on it, yet we can govern the rhythms of our lives. Learning to say no, completing nagging, unfinished business, doing something unrelated to our everyday routines; these are ways we can make choices about how to spend rather than burn our time.
What is so important in your life that you can't make time for that which gives you pleasure? Let summer teach you her lessons of rich fullness and lazy slowness. Invoke this bit of wisdom which I treasure from a friend: "So much time, so little to do".
Janice Falls, a resident of Old Ottawa South, is a counsellor for personal and spiritual growth, helping people learn the fine art of self care. For further information call 730-0373.