Creating a Slow Time Movement

Reader Contribution by Shawn Hosford
Published on September 22, 2014
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There’s a Slow Food movement gaining momentum, a movement dedicated to being everything fast food is not. With roots in the Slow Movement — which advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace — Slow Food believes in healthy, sustaining, fair food for all.

Creating a Slow Time Movement

I look forward to living in a society that holds our time spent with loved ones up to similar standards as the Slow Food movement. Call it a Slow Time movement. Quality time spent together would include “healthy time,” concentrated, without distraction; “sustaining time,” deep with lasting nourishment; and “fair time,” equally shared and accessible. Every child would know that they’re surrounded by communities and adults who are there to teach, care for, and support them as they grow in the abundance of time and love.

As the idea’s taken hold of me, I’ve been noticing the presence of Slow Time all around me. On a recent walk, I saw a mom jogging with her toddler. Instead of the mom tuning into ear buds and the child into some handheld device, this mom was exchanging thoughts with her child. It was just the two of them, concentrating on one another—counting trees, identifying birds, chatting away as they cruised the neighborhood.

My next moment was almost identical to the first, only the child was a young lady. From what I witnessed of this mother/daughter relationship (pictured below) had been practicing Slow Time for years. They were out for an early morning summer walk, spending time together, an activity as easy to replicate as it is to mutually enjoy. Slow Time, like Slow Food, is simple, basic, and accessible to most of us.

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