how slow can she go?

2008 was is my year of going slow. Taking time to smell the roses. Living in the moment. If you've been around here a while, you know that already.

Well that was the plan until February began. I know I'm trapped within time but I don't quite know what happened to the last two weeks of my life. They disappeared. And took every ounce of my increasingly slow and reflective momentum with them. Right now I'm trying to rein in the craziness and get back to taking time to appreciate life and develop the best response to the circumstances I face.

In my efforts to embrace slowness I ordered a book from Amazon called 'In praise of slow' by Carl Honore. Well I thought I ordered it. By the time the various segments of my carved up delivery arrived I discovered that I had in fact not ordered the book and I decided perhaps I would be better off finding a second hand copy locally. Or at least the environment might be better off without yet another book flying across the Atlantic consuming fuel and contributing to climate change.

With this in mind I tootled into one of the numerous second hand bookshops in town and enquired as to whether they might have a copy of 'In praise of slow'. Nope, he'd never heard of the book but it sounded interesting, so he took down the title and the author's name and promised to try and trace a copy for me. All I needed to do was pop in every now and then to check for progress.

Now hang on a minute - that's all good and well and very nice I'm sure, but I want this book right now! I don't want to wait. This service is so slow! The situation is complicated further by his obliging demeanour and our lovely conversation about developing a more reflective, deliberate lifestyle. I feel constrained not to visit any of the other bookshops in search of an alternative copy. And since he snorted so derisively at my mention of Amazon, I dare not return there for my order. (Which, incidentally, may be no quicker than waiting for a copy to be traced within Australia's golden shores, since Amazon seem to have discovered the slowest planes on the face of the earth. Or maybe their boxes are just so big Australian customs hold onto them a little longer just to make sure nothing untoward is about to contaminate our fine citizens)

The long and the short of it is this: if I desire to read a book espousing the benefits of slowing down, would it not be helpful to adopt an attitude of calm patience in the waiting? Does it not fly in the face of the very philosophy I wish to explore (and perhaps adopt) if I run to the next shop or dash for the internet to hastily obtain a copy of the very words that might help me. just. stop?

And so I bide my time, sitting on my feet, twiddling my thumbs, reading all the other books I just bought while I wait.

And wait.

And wait. Until the book arrives in its own good time and I can begin to ponder at leisure the joy of living slowly. Ho hum. This real life lesson might turn out to be more character developing than reading the book itself!

I'll let you know when it arrives.