THE WONDER OF SLOWING DOWN

"Walk as if you're kissing the earth with your feet." - Thich Nhat Hanh

SO walking with his 95 year old grandma.

It was a beautiful Mother's Day celebration. Our family had gathered at my brother and sister-in-law's house to celebrate the amazing women in our lives - my mom, my sister-in-law and SO's mom, and their 95 year old grandma. We filled the sunny day with delicious home cooked food, drinks, and colorful and fragrant gifts and cards.

Hours before everyone arrived and the festivities began, I remember the distinct joyous feeling of slowness. My SO and I had arrived at our siblings' (they are married, yes, you got it right! :)) house the day before, so we were already at their house the next morning when the preparations for the day were starting. That morning, I decided to make crepes before everyone got up. A little later, the four of us shared a slow breakfast, chatted, and hung out. After cleaning up, I started to cook my special dish for the day and realized I was missing a few ingredients. It wasn't long before I was off on a walk to the store through a quirky Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, running into other neighbors walking because it was still Shabbat.

I love seeing people out and about. Moments like these take me back to my childhood in Belgrade, Serbia, where I walked and ran everywhere my young heart desired. It may seem so simple, walking to the grocery store, but unfortunately this is a rare event in America unless you live in a city. That is why my SO and I are trying very hard to use alternative forms of transportation (a.k.a., everything other than the car - walking, biking, public transportation) whenever and wherever we can, because we realize how important it is to truly connect to the land we live on, to become aware of our surroundings, and hopefully, to run into other people and animals on the way to our destination.

I returned home after my wonderfully slow journey to the store and started to cook again. Shortly thereafter, before I was done, people started to arrive. Usually at this point I'd start stressing out because everything wasn't ready before guests arrived, but this time it felt as if I had embraced this reality ahead of its arrival and everything turned out just fine.

For the rest of the day, we dined, wined, reminisced, and spent quality time together. No one was in a rush or worried about anything, we just shared the moments together as best we could. Everyone was fully present and in it to enjoy themselves in the company of their loved ones.

And then I asked  our 95-yr old grandma if she wanted to go on a walk with me. She enthusiastically agreed and off we went down the canopy covered sidewalks in the early evening sunlight. She told me how much she loved walking and how when she was younger, she shared walks with her mom on a daily basis. She went on to say that people nowadays spend too much time in their cars and that they should walk more. It's healthy, she explained.

As we walked and I listened to her wise words, I smiled within. The day had been perfect on so many levels...It inspired me to embrace "slowing down" in order to be more present with myself, others, and the space that surrounds and nourishes us.

Happy slowing down!
~Modern Akhmatova

Related read: "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore (his TED talk about the book: http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness?language=en#t-1140814) 

LIFE'S ADVENTURES: LIVING MORE WITH LESS

*Note: this blog post is not by me, Modern Akhmatova, but by my significant other (SO)

SO and I in Fairbanks, AK

The past several months since February have been quite busy with their ups and downs. As my SO posted briefly about, we vacationed in Alaska for two weeks. Then we had to deal with cleaning up the aftermath of our flooded out apartment after we got back from vacation. Shortly thereafter we started looking for a place closer to my work since our lease term was ending. Finally we had to move all of our stuff to our new place.

In Alaska, first we saw the end of a 1000 mile dog race in Fairbanks (the Yukon Quest). We also spent nights searching for the northern lights, took a day trip stopping just shy of the Arctic Circle to see the frozen mighty Yukon river where we had a lunch on the snowy banks. Then we drove down to Anchorage, stopping midday for a day hike in Denali National Park. We briefly saw family in Anchorage and then we were off again, this time to Seward where we stayed in a cabin on the beach, played lots of cards and did some frozen hiking.

Brent Sass on his way to Fairbanks...final leg of the Yukon Quest!

Brent Sass wins the Yukon Quest!

SO and I in front of the University of Alaska Museum of the North...notice the bike behind us! 

Aurora borealis or the northern lights near Fairbanks, AK

Relaxing in natural hot springs

This is where you get your mail when you live in the middle of nowhere.

A road trip through winter wonderland.

Eating lunch on the mighty, but frozen, Yukon River.

Denali National Park and Preserve

SO getting ready to dog sled on his own!

Miller's Landing in Seward, AK...where we stayed while there.

SO and I taking a polar bear swim in Resurrection Bay (Seward, AK).

Alaska was fun, however we had a little thing hanging over our heads the entire trip. Despite having a relatively balmy winter up until the day we left, Maryland was experiencing a cold snap. And thus the first day after we arrived in Alaska, I received a call from our landlord that our apartment had flooded due to a burst pipe, despite our leaving the heat on!
It’s actually pretty funny that this happened, because we are practicing minimalists. Having moved 4 times in the past 3 years, it has certain synergies with our lifestyle. At the beginning of our vacation, as we shouldered our packs for our six-mile hike to the airport, while our apartment was just going out of view behind us, we casually discussed what if we just owned the possessions in our packs. What if we had no burdens of “stuff” and were just free to travel the world? Well I guess we got to ponder on that thought a bit more heavily during our vacation.

I think I took the news better than my SO. Honestly, after the initial reaction of “FUCK!??” I didn’t really mind all that much. These past few years, I’ve really taken to heart that I don’t care about things - at least in a sentimental way. Almost everything in our apartment is replaceable. And for what is not, I believe the memories are enough. Unfortunately SO had some letters from her deceased father that she really cherished, and years of journals she had written going back to when she was a child so she didn’t take the news so well, fearing that these would be ruined and the information lost forever. But except for those items, she also didn’t really mind the potential loss of everything else. We tried to put the news behind us and enjoy our vacation, but little things would remind us now and then of what was waiting when we returned. We tried to stay optimistic about it and I think that paid off in the end.

Things were better than expected when we got back. The landlord had replaced our carpet, and drywall and it was almost livable. Of course everything we owned was piled in giant trash bags in our living room and our kitchen and all the insides of the cabinets were covered with drywall dust so that was a bit traumatic. It took about a week to set things straight and it was stressful at times, but I’m thankful we had as little stuff as we did - it could have been a lot worse. In the end we only lost a few things from water damage (a few rugs and towels) but everything else amazingly came through OK. A few weeks after we got back you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. We did get a bill for damages from our landlord which was a bit annoying since they had initially told us because our heat was on, we would not be held liable, but since we hold renter’s insurance, Geico took care of that for us.

After finding a new place, we again appreciated the art of living with less stuff as we did our moves by ourselves over the course of a week, fitting almost everything we own into just 5 or 6 VW Golf-sized loads (we did borrow our friend with his pickup truck one evening after work to take our composter and mattress -our two biggest items - in one load).

~The Other SO