Life goes by very quickly, doesn't it? Sometimes, it's scary how fast it is.
My mind is always racing. I'm thinking of plots, chapters, characters, things to do, contests, books to be mailed, a dog to be brushed, trained. Not to mention my inter-personal relationships, and things I've obligated myself to attend.
A couple of months ago, I wondered if I slowed down my mind if I could slow down the perception that time was just flying by. I decided to try an experiment. I would take one task – just one – and notice everything about it.
My first experiment: making the bed.
I noticed the soft silkiness of the sheets, how the sunlight made the pretty sage green color change as the sheets billowed over the mattress. I noted the elastic on the bottom fitted sheet and how it slid onto the mattress corners perfectly. I smoothed the top sheet on, folded down the hem, and tucked in the bottom part just as I was taught in the Navy. I remembered being taught how to make my bed, military style, and how I was given demerits when I just couldn't figure it out.
I was beginning to really notice things, to savor them, to take joy from the activity. I paid attention to walking around the bed, to moving Flash's bedroom gate, to the carving of the wood headboard.
As I put my coverlet on the bed, I marveled at the texture. I love that coverlet and purchased it from Soft Surroundings a few years ago. It has really large tassels on the corners, and I like straightening them. That day, I admired how the ivory tassels looked against the texture of the coverlet, and how the puffy silk bed skirt shimmered.
I put on the bolsters, then the regular pillows, then the flower pillows, taking pleasure in the finished bed's appearance.
The act of making the bed took less than ten minutes, but for those ten minutes, time slowed. I wouldn't allow myself to focus on anything else. Nothing else entered my mind. Nothing stole my joy.
I know I'll remember making the bed in a way I haven't before.
Every day now, I try to take one thing and slow time by focusing completely on it. Sometimes, it's something mechanical, like cleaning and oiling Flash's treadmill. At times, it's cleaning, like treating the leather ottoman in the living room, or outside, like raking the rocks. Whatever it is, for those moments in time, I concentrate solely on that task.
Have you ever tried to slow time? How do you do it?
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