Nature is the best teacher Katie. This is one lesson I haven't had to unlearn! I continue to embrace it and I hope you are able to have it stick for you this year. Once it's in you, it will be like breathing. You will crave it and it will become essential for your health and wellbeing. (And your family's) My kids are adults now and it is one thing they all have carried with them and now their own children, spending time in nature. Regularly and without fail. I enjoyed this essay. It brought back alot of memories for me.
I tend toward melancholy and discontent, and with the basic discomfort that's sort of just my baseline existence, I compulsively fill up time and space. I'm coming into this year really truly trying to slow the fuck down. To take away the compulsive drive for more projects, more distractions, more busyness, more everything in an effort to try to really begin cultivating true contentment (because honestly my life is pretty great).
I've always known that, for me, contentment comes through spaciousness. I just haven't given myself the space. I'm working on it, and this piece helps support that. Thank you, truly, for sharing it, Katie.
Oh, and I clicked through the reddit link and seeing everyone comment about the space for a dedicated laundry room was not surprising but was still eye-opening, as someone who frequently laments not having a dedicated main-floor laundry room in her small 1941 house. It's in the basement, *it's fine!*
I am so glad it landed! That's such a good feeling.
I'm trying to slow the fuck down, too. I was listening to an interview the other day where the guest was talking about the fact that we fill up our time with *so many things* because, otherwise, we might just have to confront our own fragility. Oof. But I think facing the hard truths of life is also part of finding true contentment!
Oof indeed. I read an article recently that was pushing back against the modern notion that a well-traveled life makes for a better life, and I literally screenshot a quote from it: "Socrates said that philosophy is a preparation for death. For everyone else, there's travel." (Insert any other busy-making activities we engage in that we tell ourselves makes us and our lives better ... )
(To be clear, I don't hold an anti-travel perspective! And neither does the author. It's more about the modern *function* of travel as a kind of morally superior life.)
Nature has been my saviour and stopped me going completely mad through many dramas over the years. I could not live without my walks in nature three to six days a week, I walk between eleven and twenty miles so what they're suggesting wouldn't be enough for me 😝 . And I always find this time of year is a good time for a declutter. 😎👀 But it scares my husband when I am in the mood for it as things tend to disappear. Things he kept 'just in case' that have been hanging around, sometimes for years. It might still be a few years between them disappearing and becoming useful but he always remembers. 🤔🙄🙊
I wanted to thank you for your framework of More and Less in the new year. This week my intention is to spend (at least) 5 minutes per day outside, rain or shine. I am such an indoors person! But my 3-year-old loves being outside, and I know it's good for me too. So yesterday the two of us walked to the neighborhood mailbox despite gale-force winds (I only exaggerate a little bit) and half my mail flew away into the wind, and the kid was crying by the end, but you know what I'm still counting it as a win.
Adding my +1 to all the others when I say that this really landed for me, too, Katie.
Unfortunately, that also means I don’t have many good answers—but it’s comforting to know how many of us are wrestling with the same questions. Hopefully that means we’ll all give each other lots of grace as we clear our collective decks in 2024. ☺️
Nature is the best teacher Katie. This is one lesson I haven't had to unlearn! I continue to embrace it and I hope you are able to have it stick for you this year. Once it's in you, it will be like breathing. You will crave it and it will become essential for your health and wellbeing. (And your family's) My kids are adults now and it is one thing they all have carried with them and now their own children, spending time in nature. Regularly and without fail. I enjoyed this essay. It brought back alot of memories for me.
I was just thinking today that I hope my little one grows up to love nature. I'm glad this brought back sweet memories!
This essay *totally* landed for me.
I tend toward melancholy and discontent, and with the basic discomfort that's sort of just my baseline existence, I compulsively fill up time and space. I'm coming into this year really truly trying to slow the fuck down. To take away the compulsive drive for more projects, more distractions, more busyness, more everything in an effort to try to really begin cultivating true contentment (because honestly my life is pretty great).
I've always known that, for me, contentment comes through spaciousness. I just haven't given myself the space. I'm working on it, and this piece helps support that. Thank you, truly, for sharing it, Katie.
Oh, and I clicked through the reddit link and seeing everyone comment about the space for a dedicated laundry room was not surprising but was still eye-opening, as someone who frequently laments not having a dedicated main-floor laundry room in her small 1941 house. It's in the basement, *it's fine!*
I am so glad it landed! That's such a good feeling.
I'm trying to slow the fuck down, too. I was listening to an interview the other day where the guest was talking about the fact that we fill up our time with *so many things* because, otherwise, we might just have to confront our own fragility. Oof. But I think facing the hard truths of life is also part of finding true contentment!
Oof indeed. I read an article recently that was pushing back against the modern notion that a well-traveled life makes for a better life, and I literally screenshot a quote from it: "Socrates said that philosophy is a preparation for death. For everyone else, there's travel." (Insert any other busy-making activities we engage in that we tell ourselves makes us and our lives better ... )
(To be clear, I don't hold an anti-travel perspective! And neither does the author. It's more about the modern *function* of travel as a kind of morally superior life.)
Nature has been my saviour and stopped me going completely mad through many dramas over the years. I could not live without my walks in nature three to six days a week, I walk between eleven and twenty miles so what they're suggesting wouldn't be enough for me 😝 . And I always find this time of year is a good time for a declutter. 😎👀 But it scares my husband when I am in the mood for it as things tend to disappear. Things he kept 'just in case' that have been hanging around, sometimes for years. It might still be a few years between them disappearing and becoming useful but he always remembers. 🤔🙄🙊
We have a similar struggle in our household, haha
I wanted to thank you for your framework of More and Less in the new year. This week my intention is to spend (at least) 5 minutes per day outside, rain or shine. I am such an indoors person! But my 3-year-old loves being outside, and I know it's good for me too. So yesterday the two of us walked to the neighborhood mailbox despite gale-force winds (I only exaggerate a little bit) and half my mail flew away into the wind, and the kid was crying by the end, but you know what I'm still counting it as a win.
I love this so much! The fact that the More/Less framework helped and the image of you two chasing after flying mail!!
Thank you for this essay. It really resonated with me this morning.
I'm so glad to hear that, Claudia!
Adding my +1 to all the others when I say that this really landed for me, too, Katie.
Unfortunately, that also means I don’t have many good answers—but it’s comforting to know how many of us are wrestling with the same questions. Hopefully that means we’ll all give each other lots of grace as we clear our collective decks in 2024. ☺️
Slowing things down and looking at nature is a real slice of genius