Why I'm spending July hurrying... slowly 🐢

Good Digs is a design and decor newsletter from The Good Trade. Every other Thursday, one of our editors pulls back the curtain on their space, inspirations, and reflections on home.

For the last few years, I’ve pulled 1-3 tarot cards nearly every morning. I like to do this on the floor just before yoga, often with a candle and a fresh cup of coffee. I rarely do a specific spread anymore — I don’t use tarot for decision-making, or trying to divine the future. Instead, I look at the cards, and use my visual interpretation skills from a former life as an arts museum educator to jumpstart my mind for the day, while at the same time grounding myself in my body.

The only question I ask is “What do you see?”

Many of us long for slowness, exhausted by the break neck speed of the increasingly hectic, digital world around us. Summer is a particularly inviting time to slow down, with the high heat and longer days naturally dialing back the urgency on some of those less-than-truly-urgent items on our to-do list.

But I find that I also need (and even like!) a little giddyup in my life — I like forward momentum, the satisfaction of accomplishment, the sense that I’m truly living my life instead of watching it pass me by.

And the trouble is that I can sometimes manufacture this sort of energy for all the wrong things — a messy kitchen, a cluttered desk, a sudden and seemingly urgent need to buy a cat water fountain, a mini car vacuum, a complicated-looking gel manicure set. All of these are usually signs that I have lost my way a little bit, forgotten what it is I am longing to do.

So when I recently pulled the Knight of Wands reversed and read this interpretation, I saw a mindset shift that could help me reset my energies:

Hurry slowly! How brilliantly this speaks to the particular tension so many of us feel — especially when our own goals and dreams are the first things we set aside in favor of so many other responsibilities.

This is the magic of Festina Lente, which inspires me to maintain the energy and enthusiasm for a goal even as its progress gets stalled at times. It makes me expand my relationship to timelines and progress, and consider more generously whatever expectations I’ve adopted about success and failure.

This month, I’m writing a novella from scratch. It’s a project I’ve tried before, and I’ve historically succumbed to the pressures that pulled me from it, letting the feeling of failure keep me from trying again. But instead of making up a harmful story about myself, this time I’m going to try something new — using what I’ve learned from the past to better support myself this time around.

Top of my list? I’m going to prioritize sleep.

We are a My Green Mattress house, and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love my bed. And especially during a big project like this with hours of frenetic writing sprints, a high quality mattress is essential for helping me get my deepest and most restorative sleep every night. (Psst, if you’re intrigued, My Green Mattress is one of the brands offering discounts during the 4th of July sales!)

I am also going to let the house … “relax” a little bit. I’m going to lean on some easy meals and some tried-and-true activities to set up for my daughter when I need to avoid getting caught up in extra tasks and losing precious momentum.

And at the same time, I’m going dial up the urgency on my own dreams, even if it means some chores aren’t done well — or even done at all. It’s okay. Maybe by inviting a slower pace in my home, I might even learn to see some of the “mess” as evidence of a beautiful life being well-lived.

Festina lente

Here are some of the ways I’m going to be sure to “hurry slowly” this July:

1. The most crucial item for my low-domestic-responsibilities July is our Roborock (currently $270 off!). My dogs continue to live a Hot Shed Summer and since the self-emptying robot vacuum runs on a schedule, I don’t have to see the dustbunny/furball tumbleweeds!

2. Morning yoga and tarot is my daily ritual, and these are some of my favorite decks. I particularly recommend Tarot for All Ages (top left), which features some non-traditional variations on the archetypes with the most stunning illustrations by Elizabeth Haidle.

3. Trying to write around kids during the summer holidays doesn’t have to be impossible — I stand by my mom’s advice that when in doubt, just take them outside and give them a hose (or, if you’re feeling fancy, a kiddie pool!).

4. Anytime I see rolls of butcher paper or plain white paper I buy them — easily the best and most versatile art supply for any kid. We cover the dining table, the hall floor, or walls and bust out the tempera sticks when we want an activity to get completely lost in. (Hot tip: keep the art to use as wrapping paper!)

5. I recently got to try out these ice packs from Chilltherapy and they are a game changer! Soft, moldable, and available in multiple sizes, they’ve officially replaced our frozen peas for soothing sore muscles or bumps and bruises. We’ve even busted them out on extra hot days for a quick cool down!

6. My month-long novella project heavily relies on this book, a very basic rotation of simple recipes, and lots of wine. I like thinking through plot problems in our garden, surrounded by all three.

7. Making ready-to-go snacks is key for big writing crashes, when I can easily lose track of time and forget to eat. I love to use jam jars to fill with hummus and cut veggies, so I can grab it straight from the fridge without thinking. Clemmies are also a crucial snack!

8. My go-to easy dinner these days is a variation on the following: A Kevin’s Natural Foods protein, a frozen vegetable, and sometimes a grain. If I get a wild hair, I’ll crush cashews and add chopped cilantro and scallions, or drizzle it off with Sriracha or some chili crisp oil. It takes ten minutes and I never get tired of it.

9. Even when my house is a mild disaster, we always pick up fresh flowers to keep in pitchers around the house. It adds a little touch of effort that dresses up the mess — or at least, that’s what I tell myself. 😚

Do you ever find yourself managing the tension of dualing energies? How do you hurry slowly — or have you discovered a completely different approach? I’d love to hear in the comments!

Warmly,
Stephanie

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