How much of daily life is allowed to take as long as it takes? Calculate how much is cut short and rushed: Cooking, getting ready to go out, pretty much every must-do thing. Then, as if to balance all that, how much are stolen secret pleasures, such as screen time and chit-chat? Maybe the forced rush and the escape are engaged some kind of awful, perpetual dance.
My sister and her family are staying at the Lakeside cabin here at Gardenfarm. Its been a week of doing fun, useful things one after the other, but not knowing what they will be till you've started.
There has been
- Rescuing the floating football using the blow-up boat.
- Teaching the 3 year old Yoga on the verandah.
- Digging potatoes for dinner.
- Singing every starry song we know, as the fire turns to a soft glow.
Here, everything takes exactly as long as it takes, not a minute more or less. Nobody's asking for screen time, or escapist activities. We have already escaped.
Forcing ourselves to limit screentime and distractions may not be needed. Maybe we can set up our daily tasks so they are the entertainment, the thing we want to be doing, that our support people want to join in with. Lets experivment with settign up our cooking, our preening and social interactions so there are no obstacles and interruptions, lots of welcome surprises, and it all happens as close to a garden as possible.