not to use my blog like twitter, but..

this is an awesome article. i feel like i need to pick it apart more and digest it, piece by piece.

the new normal

i've been meaning to pass this post on for a lil while now - i came across the most beautiful post on simple lovely last month and bookmarked it; it was only yesterday while i was going through my bookmarks that it refreshed my memory and intentions. i'm just going to go ahead and quote it because i think she captures the notion absolutely.

joslyn says:

"I loved this piece entitled “The New Normal” from Tuesday’s All Things Considered... I've been thinking a lot about the idea of recalibrating our lives due to the economic situation and what specifically that means for my family (beyond the spending hiatus.) Call me an optimist, but I'm convinced that this period of re-thinking how we live, dialing back and becoming more mindful (whether forced or voluntary) will absolutely change our lives for the better.

My favorite line from the piece is the prediction that we will "drive smaller cars and live larger lives."

Larger lives…I like that."

sometimes i think, despite all of the hardships and job loss that this recession has caused, that a careful analysis and re-calibration of one's life is always beneficial and - provided that people actually stick with their resolutions - better for them in the long run.

take a moment today and read through the comments in both simple lovely and npr - i think that a lot of them tie in with the story of stuff so very well.

smaller cars and larger lives... i'll most definitely second that motion.

photos via victoria pearson

food for thought

hm. from last month's new york times. what do you think?

Slow Blogging is a rejection of immediacy. It is an affirmation that not all things worth reading are written quickly.

This approach is a deliberate smack at the popular group blogs like Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, Valleywag and boingboing, which can crank out as many as 50 items a day. On those sites, readers flood in and advertisers sign on. Spin and snark abound. Earnest descriptions of the first frost of the season are nowhere to be found.

In between the slow bloggers and the rapid-fire ones, there is a vast middle, hundreds of thousands of writers who are not trying to attract advertising or buzz but do want to reach like-minded colleagues and friends. These people have been the bedrock of the genre since its start, yet recently there has been a sea change in their output: They are increasingly turning to slow blogging, in practice if not in name.

“I’m definitely noticing a drop-off in posting — I’m talking about among the more visible bloggers, the ones with 100 to 200 readers or more,” said Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies popular culture and technology. “I think that those people who were writing long, thought-out posts are continuing, but those who were writing, ‘Hey, check this out’ posts are going to other forums. It’s a dynamic shift.”

Technology is partly to blame. Two years ago, if a writer wanted to share a link or a video with friends or tell them about an upcoming event, he or she would post the information on a blog. Now it’s much faster to type 140 characters in a Twitter update (also known as a tweet), share pictures on Flickr, or use the news feed on Facebook. By comparison, a traditional blogging program like WordPress can feel downright glacial.

and furthermore..

enoughist philosophies seem to be following me everywhere.

in the same vein as yesterday's post, here's another gem that i ran into on martawrites, with the image sourced from heartdew. check out her serene muted images at her etsy shop.

i've been making a concerted effort to slow down and notice certain things in my day, taking a minute - however brief - to stand, ankle-deep in that moment, refreshed and reflective. pollyanna as it sounds, it been getting easier and more natural as the days fly by.

today, walking back to my office from a morning meeting, i could smell the same faintly rich pungent smell that the lake at my cottage has, and it reminded me of my childhood spending those everlasting summers paddling in the water, having campfires and smacking mosquitos as we roasted marshmallows.

what are some little things that you might notice in your day that momentarily might take you away for a brief escape?

speaking of locavores...

here's something from domino magazine's march 2008 issue, where i stumbled across an article written about one woman's adventure into becoming a locavore for two weeks. interesting and tough stuff to do! i'd love to give it a try except for the fact that it's not cheap. (it's incredibly tragic that the only reason why people don't make better/healthier/more sustainable choices is because of cost effectiveness!)

toronto just hosted the green living show and if it weren't for the fact that i was in waterloo for the weekend, i would have checked it out - particularly since they apparently had some info on affordable sustainable living. (ha - it almost comes out sounding like an oxymoron... affordable + sustainable.)

one of our student staff today recommended a book entitled 'the omnivore's dilemma' by michael pollan... i'd really love to check it out. that is, it's been put on my wish list... behind 12 other books, and i havent added eat pray love to it yet (but would really love to read it, i've heard nothing but good things AND she was spectacular on oprah.

locavore on a road trip

i love farmers markets. here are a few flicks i took of the st jacobs farmers market - even though it was a somewhat grey/rainy/somewhat chilly weekend, people still came out in hordes. the integration of more Slow philosophy into my life has really emphasized the need & importance for locally-grown and sustained food.. and since then i've become even more infatuated with them. it's like grocery shopping, but more exciting. i love walking through the deli/meat aisle and seeing all of the stuffed chops, steaks and kebabs... they're almost a work of art. (much moreso, i'd say, than the kind that comes from a box that originated at the bottom of your freezer and you need to cut open the airtight freezer bag and scrape the subsequent freezer burn too. this fresh stuff, not so much.

i loved the colours of some of their booths! so bright and vibrant despite the flat grey sky.

awesome post of the day

shyeah. read this post.

" I know that the details are our fabric. I know that the sum of our parts and moments and magics are everything. That's who I am. I move very fast, but I live very slowly "

amen sista! so true. she's one very wise person, that kal barteski. i want to buy her book. and hang out with her. and be her friend. and adopt her super-positive (but not saccharine fairy-tale) outlook on all things life.

it's a work in progess. i'll keep you updated.

today: work's still busy ... i'm lovin' it. listening to feist and working on all things training for our incoming student staff. (there's something about playing "sea-lion woman" on a sunny day when you're in a good mood that makes you feel like you're rockin' through all the work you have to do).

tonight: goin on a dinner (and hopefully bookstore?) date with mike tonight as i'm going back to st jacobs with my mom and my sister and her friend this weekend, so we wont get to hang out. then i've gotta do laundry and pack.

oh plus, i brought vanilla frozen yogurt, healthy brownies, sliced almonds and strawberries along with chocolate sauce and my coworkers and i are going to make brownie sundaes sans regret this afternoon. can this day get any better?!

slow and steady wins the race

so i've been doing a bit more thinking and research into potential areas of research for grad school, and one of the topics that i always seem to fall back to (in one way or another) has to do with the slow movement. the more i research it, the more i want to find out more.

i had first stumbled on "in praise of slow" by carl honore while browsing the cultural studies section in chapters. this sociocultural movement started in rome's piazza di spagna when a mcdonald's was set to open, sparking protest among it's community. the 'slow food movement' was born. it's goal is to preserve the cultural cuisine and the associated food, plants and seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion. the movement has since grown and expanded to other areas of life, including slow travel, slow communities and cittaslow (literally, slow city) among many many others.

the most appealing aspect of the slow movement is the focus towards the self, health, community and most of all, an environmentally sustainable perspective. it seems that everywhere i look, there is so much pressure on people be super-productive in all aspects of life... resulting in higher than ever levels of stress, sickness, and burnout. we're just not meant to function at such high capacities for prolonged periods of time. but somehow, the message continues. it's funny how once i started looking at things this way, many {many!} of my philosophies and viewpoints about life started being cohesively pulled together. vaccinations and the flu shot, for example, are a huge example of the fast-paced way of life. {after all, it only makes sense; if something's wrong with your body... why bother attempting to fix it with nutrition and exercise when you can medicate it away?}

you could even look at the success that etsy has enjoyed thus far as part of the slow movement; people want something special, unique, and handmade. that is to say, not mass-produced by a machine. it embodies the slow movement's transition from mass-made to handmade and in addition, creating a networked community of artists and their supporters across north america and the rest of the world. pretty nifty, huh?

just to give a more specific idea of what i mean by this, here's a few objectives of the slow food movement, as taken from the all-knowing wikipedia:

"The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an "ark of taste" for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces "

{i would like to take this opportunity to mention that this past summer, toronto held a slow food event at the brickworks. i was thrilled and would have gone.. but it cost in the neighbourhood of $70 to attend and well, i just dont have that kind of disposible income at this point. but the point is, we hosted it. and that awesome for us. woot! *pops collar*}

i'm not saying that slow solutions are the solutions *all the time*. even in his book, carl honore says there are times for slow, and times for speed. after all, who would be able to keep a job if they were constantly taking breaks to stop and smell the flowers? the point of the slow movement, as i see it, is finding your own balance.

and really now. who doesn't like balance?