Week #24: Moving slow

August 10 - August 16th

I got back from Mexico on Monday. 

I have been before and have long been enamored with the country. On this occasion it felt harder to leave. I wasn’t traveling with my band and having to manage a  schedule. I wasn’t traveling for work and having to play a part, nor with my partner and having to be considerate. I was traveling with close friends with the sole purpose of fun. 

How good it felt to roam uncommitted. 

The rest of the week felt rushed in comparison — meetings, quarterly planning, reports. I’ll admit, the routine got to me. I began to feel low. The day-to-day felt somewhat pointless.

Lately I’ve been craving a pause. To take time to reassess what’s working and what’s not in my life. To examine where I’m wasting time and energy. I have a tendency to do too much: write blogs, journals, essays, and fiction. Perform and write music. Read. Exercise. Study. 

I try to do it all every day. To a fault. 

Yet the only way I know to slow down time is not by being more productive, it’s by enjoying meaningful experiences with others. That’s what happened in Mexico. It’s why it was hard to return. 

So just a few days after I returned to Chicago, when a different group of friends egged me on to fly to Orlando to join them in a reunion, I bypassed my knee-jerk decline and bought a cheap flight. Now I’m finishing this week how I started it—on a plane. 

I’m moving but trying to take it slow. 

Writing: 6hr 

Music: 5 hr

Band admin: 3hr