Chronomancy...a family of spells in many of our RPGs and fantasy video games pertaining to time manipulation. We've all weighed the benefits of using a turn to cast a good haste or slow spell or even freezing a target completely in their tracks. It can be very helpful to catch an extra turn or stop a powerful enemy from being able to attack. But, recently I have been seeing some parallels between these pieces of fantasy and my real life. As I approach 40 years old, I feel like I may have chugged a few too many potions of haste in my life. All that caffeine has begun to catch up with me and the hours keep flying by at an alarming rate. It's a condition our world has created around us. A constant push to go fast, be efficient, always be doing something. Even the legend himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, once said "...if you say you need 8 hours of sleep, I say, SLEEP FASTER." Moderation is key, moderation in all things. Constantly working will suck all the joy out of being alive, but stagnation and laziness will rob all growth and opportunity as well. Let's have our first reflection in the new Modern Gentleman series and discuss how to better divide and manage our time. So traveler, pull up a seat and lets have a heartfelt and peaceful sharing of thoughts.
Time...
How we spend our time is the most important decision we can make. We have to divide our time between faith, work, personal time, and sleep. The problem I notice more and more is that everyone seems to be in a big ol' rush all the time and only seems to be concerned with getting from Point A to Point B to keep DOING something. We don't slow down and embrace the moments like we should. It's not enough to walk through the flower garden...we have to pull that phone out and document the flowers for our social media...and we edit the pictures to make the beauty of nature MORE beautiful. We don't sit down to a fine meal without including the television or phone. We miss memories and moments with our loved ones that will never come around again and we don't slow down enough to notice until they are so long passed that they become lost forever. It's a terrible cycle that we've built for ourselves. The fear of stepping off life's treadmill and trying to slow down is so overwhelming that most of us, regardless of recognizing what we're doing to ourselves, will never have the courage to change.
With that, I encourage you to find something you can slow down and enjoy. Something you do each day that you've never slowed down enough to truly appreciate. My first mundane task that I have chosen to slow down and do with deliberate heart was my handwriting. I write pages of notes, rough drafts of blog entries, and ideas for my D&D stories each day. I typically would create these documents with cheap, disposable pens in rushed writing that often times I couldn't read after a few days time. So, I invested a couple dollars in a disposable fountain pen. I was immediately drawn to the way the letters just flow from the silver pen nib at the tip of this beautiful instrument. My pen was by no means anything fancy. But, compared to the standard white BIC pens I typically carried, I felt like I had traded in my Buick for a Mercedes. And I immediately noticed my handwriting began to improve. As I began to enjoy the act of writing more, I began to slow my writing down to savor the process. I quickly realized my sloppy penmanship would not suffice for a fountain pen. I regularly got the angle of the nib wrong and either got no ink or large blobs on my paper. I had to be deliberate and methodical with how I wrote with this pen. And, the more I analyzed and improved my penmanship, the more joy I felt from the act of writing.
Now that I have enjoyed a taste of pride and joy in slowing down such a mundane task as writing notes. I've started to eye many other tasks in my day to day life. Things I feel I can refine to a different standard simply by slowing down and taking the time to do them better. If it's making my morning coffee from higher quality beans in a French Press instead of the standard Folgers in the coffee pot, or maybe retiring my old digital wristwatch and looking into a more classy analogue timepiece, or even tossing my sneakers in the closet and learning to polish my boots up and wear them again. All of these changes have one big common factor. They take more time. It's easy and convenient to throw in the coffee grounds and hit the brew button, or to glance at the digital time display on my watch, or to throw on my well worn sneakers and rush out the door. But, tasks that we spend no time in doing will bring us little lasting joy. The coffee tastes better when you put time and effort into the brewing, the time is more meaningful when you see the arms of the clock moving through the day, and the pride in your appearance will radiate from you all day when you dress sharp with your freshly polished boots. It's these little things that make the biggest differences in your life.
So, my friends, I encourage you to step off the treadmill of life and give yourself a chance to embrace the moment. Find ways to inject joy and passion into the common tasks in your day and you'll find new meanings in your life. It's how we breath new life into our stale days. When we find ourselves in a rut in our life ,we have to find something to change. We have to find some splash of color to bring us back to life. Because, as a wise old farmer once told me, "a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out." We have to get out of the ruts in our lives and find ways to live life! Even if it's buying a "fancy" pen and working on how we write, making a better cup of coffee, or cleaning up those old work boots. Maybe it's a new hairstyle or beard style? Maybe it's finding a new radio station in the car? Find something to enhance your experience and deepen your enjoyment each day. Life has endless depths of beauty and experience. With that, I want to leave you today with a quote from one of my favorite movies. And as always, thank you for joining me in this journey we're on.
Until we meet again...
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... to put rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I
had not lived.”
―N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society
If you want to try out the Pilot Varsity pens like I did, here's my associate link for them.
Amazon Link - https://amzn.to/4eAPmt6
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Recently I've been getting back into reading like I used to. Not sure that counts as something to do slowly, as it seems I can't put the book down. But it's something I've always enjoyed and have been separated from through the rat race that is my life. Perhaps it can be considered something I do slowly if I take the time to re-read it when I'm done.