5 Ways to Slow Down as the Season Changes

The change of season is one of the few moments when slowing down is actually possible, because the pattern of the week is being redrawn anyway.

Lamentations 3:23 follows straight on from that. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. New every morning is a daily supply rather than a stockpile, which is worth knowing in a season that keeps asking for more than you have. Five ways to use that, none of which require a quieter life than the one you have.

One: Protect One Unhurried Hour

Choose one hour a week with nothing assigned to it. Sunday afternoon, or early Saturday, or Wednesday evening once the house is quiet.

Put it in the calendar the way you would put in an appointment, because otherwise it will be spent before it arrives.

It does not need a plan. That is what makes it different from the rest of the week.

Guard it against good things as well as bad ones. The hour will most often be lost to something worthwhile, which is exactly why it needs defending.

Two: Make One Meal Slowly

Once a week, cook something that takes longer than it needs to. Something with a stage where you stand and wait.

The waiting is the point. Chopping, stirring, watching a pot are among the last unhurried tasks left in an ordinary house.

Bring nothing to listen to. Let it be as boring as it wants to be.

Ask someone to keep you company in the kitchen while you do it. Slowness is easier with another person in the room and the conversation tends to be better than the ones held across a table.

Three: Walk the Same Route Weekly

Pick a short walk near the house and take it on the same day each week through the season.

Walking the same ground repeatedly shows you the change happening, which is the whole gift of autumn and is completely invisible from a car.

Twenty minutes is plenty. Consistency matters more than distance.

Four: Close the Evening Deliberately

Choose a small action that ends the day. Wiping the counter, filling the kettle for morning, lighting and then blowing out a candle.

Days that trail off leave you restless. Days with an ending let you stop, and the body learns the signal quickly.

Do it at roughly the same time and it will start slowing the whole hour before it.

Involve whoever is in the house. A closing action everyone recognizes does more for a family's pace than any conversation about being too busy.

Five: Leave the Phone in Another Room After Eight

Not all evening. One hour, at the end, with the phone charging somewhere else.

This is the single largest change available to most of us and it is also the least popular. Try it three nights before deciding.

The first evening feels long, which is precisely the complaint and precisely the point.

Put something in its place so the hour is not simply empty. A book on the arm of the chair is usually enough.

Start With the Hour

Of the five, the protected hour is the one everything else grows out of.

Open the calendar now and put it somewhere in this week, before the season fills up around you.