Slowing down the pace of life

A Mary Oliver poem, summer hobbies, and taking time to "notice".

With the arrival of May on Wednesday it is the beginning of my favorite time of year. Summer is the season for me that is full of nostalgia, adventures, slowing down, living mostly out of doors, and my birthday.

When I think of May-August it feels like an exhale. I’ve mentally held my breath all year and now it’s time to let it go.

I was just revisiting Devotions by Mary Oliver and this poem feels like the transition between spring and summer-

Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

The last couple of lines I’m sure you’ve heard numerous times but the rest of the poem is so rich with the flavors of this liminal space between spring and summer.
(Listen to her read the poem here.)

I’ve been seeing more grasshoppers lately and the verdant grasses of early spring are starting to golden.

It’s easy to overlook these things around us when we’re consumed with work and lists of to-do’s.

What Mary expresses in the poem is that everything in this life is so fleeting, so why not slow down and enjoy it?

Do you think watching a grasshopper for an hour is a waste of time? Less important than anything else?

How do you determine what’s important? What scale do you use for measuring the quality of your day? Of your life?

Should we not take notice and enjoy things before they’re gone?

This summer I’m going to notice.

Slow hobbies you don’t monetize

I’ve been thinking about how a lot of the time, when we’re good at a hobby, the next step is thinking “Maybe I could sell this or turn it into a side hustle/gig/biz”.

Instead of just having fun creating something for yourself and keeping it lighthearted and sacred, we often try to find ways to capitalize on our talents.

I can confirm, turning a hobby you enjoy into a business usually spoils the fun.

In the beginning you’re creating and doing what you love but once it turns into a business you’re now doing marketing, accounting, customer service, web design and maintenance, shipping, etc.

Where did the time go that you spent actually doing whatever the hobby was?

A hobby I’ve kept for a few years now has been watercolor. I’ve always enjoyed painting and drawing but it’s always taken the backseat to photography and writing.

A few summers ago when I would take the summer months off social media (this could be a whole other post) I went out and purchased a little watercolor set.

Whenever I get the chance I’ll whip it out and paint something. I’ve had some blank note cards that I used to use for my calligraphy shop that I decided to paint on for my mom.
We like to send snail mail notes to each other even though we’re only a few miles apart.

So oftentimes, I’ll paint something relevant to the letter or what’s going on in our lives.

This week I painted rhubarb because she’s growing rhubarb in her garden (and I can’t wait to eat whatever she makes with it) -

I can’t tell you how good it feels to create something and know you don’t have to show it to everyone. The end goal is the creative process itself and enjoying your time doing it. Making something without the thought of “I wonder if this will sell or do well” is so refreshing to the creative spirit. And I think it’s the way art is meant to be experienced. It’s something we’ve really lost sight of.

This summer

Girl Reading by a Stream by John Singer Sargent, c.1888

This summer I want to spend most of my time doing the following:

• reading

• painting

• writing poetry

• journaling

• picnics with my daughters

• swinging in my hammock

• yoga outside

I’ve been reading some journals lately- one being Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton and also The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy.

They take notice of the most interesting details around them on any given day and turn it into such stunning prose. It’s inspired me to start a journal for the summer and capture the essence of it to someday look back on fondly.

I finished The Artist’s Way course book a couple weeks ago and in it, she advises you to write 3 pages every morning in a journal of whatever you want. I wasn’t a regular journaler prior to that. I’m more of an agenda person with calendars and lists.

During the months doing these morning pages, my pages grew more and more maniacal and eventually I thought it wasn’t a good idea to keep these around and either burned them or drowned them in water.

I don’t know if that’s what Julia Cameron intended with the course but that was how it ended for me. Ha..

Anyway, I thought how nice it would be to start fresh and journal in a way that honored the days and life around me. Not necessarily all sunshine and roses but in a more narrative kind of way with a touch of personal perspective similar to the authors above.

So I guess, if I had one word for the summer as a sort of mantra, it would be “notice” and it can be applied to all of the activities above.

Notice for the poetry, notice for the writing and the painting, notice the breath and body in yoga, and notice the quality time spent with my girls before they rush off to school in the autumn.

How do you plan to spend your summer?

Any good journaling tips? Do you have any hobbies you don’t share for profit or “likes”?

x,
Courtney

PS- I saw this painting by Mary Cassatt of this woman who looks like she doesn’t know what to do with herself and it made me laugh.
I think this is how everyone would look if they had to turn their phones off and were told to “be present, enjoy this flower”. :)

Woman with a Red Zinnia by Mary Cassatt, c. 1891