Slow Travel

Today, we went to our friends farm for the afternoon. We had not been in a while because of schedules. I realized when I was down there how much I have missed this time. Even though I did not grow up on a farm, we lived in the country. We had a large garden and fruit trees and bushes. Both of my aunts and their families lived on farms in Indiana-one with animals and one mostly without them. We also traveled at least once a year to Iowa where my cousins lived on a large farm with many animals. I always looked forward to my times on the farm when I was growing up.

Today, we also took the "back roads" down to the farm. This involves a short car ferry ride across the Kentucky River. It is a small ferry holding only 3 cars. As we were traveling along the road and across the river, I realized that taking this way always makes me slow down and enjoy the scenery. When I first started working several years ago, I did home health in more rural areas. I enjoyed the people I came in contact with each day but my favorite part of the job was driving the small country roads and anticipating what was around the corner. It seemed to always slow me down in a positive way and helped me be more in tune with the world around me as I drove by it. I realized how much I crave that slowness and sense of peace these days.

I feel like the world around me is spinning faster and faster. We seem to be stuck in a one upmanship in who can be the busiest. We don't want to be slower and seem to be very impatient with the person who makes that happen as we drive or go about our daily routines. Driving on the back roads and taking the ferry purposefully slows my world down.

Since we have started on our journey of sustainable living I have realized many things. The best one of all is spending more time as a family working together as a whole to feed ourselves. It is nice to not have the interruption of electronics especially the TV. We sit down as a family for meals and have conversations with each other. We are no where near ideal in pursuing this goal but we have come a long way. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to get back into the rat race and then we have to break the busyness cycle we have once again allowed to overtake our life. I hope as time goes on we will get better at staying out of the rat race.

What is your peaceful place? What helps you to slow down and see the world around you?