Be honest about what's not working
TSD #002 - tips & insights on leading a slower, well-rooted life
You know what’s really tough?
Slowing down enough to know yourself, to make room for connection, and to encounter the holy in your everyday life. It can be done, of course, with practice and intention. But much of modern life isn’t set up for us to live this way. I’ve been writing about my quest for depth, slowness, and connection for a couple of years now. As life keeps moving, the world keeps changing, and as my faith keeps evolving, I thought it’d be fun to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along way.
Welcome to the slow down, a weekly-ish column sharing what I’ve learned about cultivating a slower-paced, well-rooted life.
In addition to sharing occasional essays here on A More Beautiful Way—as I’ve got a series on my conversion to Orthodox Christianity in the works—this column will feature short insights and gentle invitations to encourage your slow living, soul care journey.
Each week will feature a tip on slowing down, an insight gleaned from the natural world, a quote that I can’t get out of my head, a book I’m currently reading, and at least one link worth lingering over.
My hope is for this column to be a guide for the wandering and weary. It’s for folks who are doing their best to stay grounded and want a little inspiration for the journey. I will publish these on Fridays. Essays, when I write them, will still drop on Tuesdays. We’ll see how it goes. As always, I’m so glad you’re here and I look forward to seeing how this offering lands in the soil of your life.
the slow down tip
What’s today’s tip? Be honest. Honesty is a critical first step to creating a slower, well-rooted life. We have to be honest, mostly with ourselves, about what is and isn’t working in the way we’re currently doing things. This isn’t about rushing to fix anything or about chasing some standard of perfection. It’s about telling the truth so that we can make choices from a place anchored in reality instead of fantasy, illusion, or delusion. If you’re job is making you physically and mentally unwell, be honest about it. If your relationships are draining and painful, get honest. If you have addictive patterns or habits that are robbing your life from you, tell the truth. Ideally, to a trustworthy third party, but at least to yourself.
Honesty, even with yourself, is one of the bravest steps we can take towards creating a life of nourishment and healing.
nature speaks
We planted a pineapple sage bush last spring. Over the course of the spring and summer, it grew to be about 30 inches tall and more than 30 inches wide. Its delicate, bright red blossoms, reminiscent of honeysuckle blooms, painted the garden with richness and vibrancy. She was a stunning shrub and I loved her.
Every fall and winter, it’s a gamble to see what will survive. Unfortunately, my darling pineapple sage was a casualty of playing dogs who broke one of her main stems during their morning zoomies. By the time a cold snap came, she didn’t have the strength to make it. She was gone.
This spring, as I watched my flower garden come to life, I often looked over at where the pineapple sage once stood and lamented her absence. Until one day, Alex noticed a little sprig that looked eerily familiar to our pineapple sage. Surely enough, while I thought the shrub was gone forever, she’d actually scattered seeds in her death, leaving us not with one new shrub, but with eleven! We now have eleven pineapple sage bushes growing happily across the earth where their mother once stood.
Nature speaks: life is more resilient than we know.
quotable
“Mental health is a dedication to reality at all costs.” - M. Scott Peck
off the shelf
I’m currently reading The Life of the Virgin Mary, attributed to the 7th-century church Father St. Maximos the Confessor. She is known as the Theotokos, the Mother of God, in Orthodox holy tradition. She has been a loving, firm, and gentle guide to me as I’ve found my way in the faith. The fullness of her story is relatively new to me given my background in evangelical Protestantism. I have many more thoughts on this which I’ll share about in my series on my conversion, but for now, this is the book I’ve pulled off the shelf.
worth lingering over
Lore Wilbert shared this article,The Church Forests of Ethiopia, and I was brought to tears multiple times as I read. Maybe I’m tender because I see something of my own spiritual journey in the lives of these Orthodox priests. Maybe I’m tender because of how the faithful are stewarding some of the few remaining forests in Ethiopia. Maybe I’m tender because the church is so rarely known as a place of refuge, earth stewardship, and mystery. In any case, this a stunning story and it’s still stirring within me even now. I had to share it with you.
in case you missed it
If you’re thinking about how to stay rooted in the midst of violence and war, this post is for you
If you’re moving through the grief, I’ve written some poetry about those things
If AMBW was a college class and we had required reading, this would be the list