Slow Living Trial

​Within the Corona Virus Quarantine, lays the optimal set of circumstances to reevaluate life. The Pause-separation has forced people all around the world to take time away from jobs and stay home. The result is one of life's most precious resources, the primary quality of a rich life, and essential individual freedom- time.
There is latitude in the spring of 2020 to assess values, try on slow living, and see if it feels luxurious.  
The possibility of days without external deadlines looming provides the freedom to talk to Mom on the phone for as long as she needs. Later today, I am attending a video chat of my niece's piñata- birthday party that I would not have been able to make it to in real-time.
My 9-year-old niece is home from school, and yesterday there was no home-school. She just got the Messenger for Kids app. We had four video chats throughout the day.
Control of one's own time is part of my definition of having a rich life. It is a part of being wealthy, in monetary terms, which the average person rarely experiences. 
Free time affords me the liberty to make choices about what I do with my days, other than work.  There is time to reflect, learn, grow and re-prioritize before moving forward. 
What do I miss while I'm sequestered? Dining with friends? Standing around, talking with people? Hugs and physical interaction? Basketball?  What is making me happy? Reading? Drawing with the kids? What was I busy with before, and did it matter? 
 The answers to these questions illustrate for me what's important. From here, I have a jumping-off point to incorporate what I've learned about myself and use it in  building a life based around the things I value.
The hamster wheel just froze.  Life is on pause. When the circus starts up again, bring back only what makes one's life feel richer. Be strong. There will be a bombardment of advertising to try and get us all to spend and consume to make us feel 'better,' but don't I already feel good from slow living? From reassessing my values? From having a rich life?
For now, there's time. Most of us aren't going anywhere. I write and sketch in my notebook for the first time in decades.
April '20 is a chance to learn things and finish projects.
There is time to clean out the spare bedroom so that when this is all over, we can have family visits again.
Unscheduled hours can be spent walking in the woods or around the lake, building a fort with the kids.
A slot just opened at 12:30, perhaps it's time to get back into baking, sewing, martial arts, fix up the classic car, paint the house, use the pasta maker at long last, or the bread machine.
Suddenly there is time for napping, reading books, playing checkers, checking-in on family halfway across the country.
Having control over my own time is integral to my feeling of wealth and richness in my life. Connection with friends and family, slow mornings, cooking meals with my husband, being of service, these are the things that are more important to me than working.
Restart from the Pause a life arranged so that, while perhaps not financially wealthy, it is a rich life based on  the values of connection, slow living, and time for things of significance.

slow living with grape hyacinth