The 3MPH blog is six and a half years old this month and I’m amazed that we’ve kept it going this long. Perhaps it’s a testament to the power of the Slow living mindset. That was the original intent of 3MPH – sharing our journey, as we attempt to create a more meaningful and conscious lifestyle. Living our lives at the right speed, doing things better, not faster. Slowing down, doing less, and spending the right amount of time on the things that matter most.
“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Slow living means living better, not faster. It’s about self-awareness and making conscious, purposeful decisions for the benefit of your own well-being. Being busy does not make you more important or successful, it makes you tired, stressed and burnt out. Slow living celebrates quality over quantity, living with intent, and being conscious. It switches off the autopilot and creates space for reflection and self-awareness.
Maybe the reason 3MPH has lasted so long is that we’re still struggling with slowing down and staying in the moment. It goes against the staus quo, and requires a tremendous amount of discipline. The concept of doing anything slowly doesn’t fit that well in the present paradigm. The word “slow” has negative connotations and folks often relate it to sluggish, lazy or unproductive.
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good or Bad
Duality is not reality but humanity has a penchant for classifying everything as either good or bad. Nothing is one or the other, so classifying everything is futile, it’s just mental masturbation. The separation exists in our minds though, where fast is better than slow, big is better than small, and more is always what we seek. When you shift your perception a bit you realize there is good slow and bad slow, just as there is good fast and bad fast.
Good slow is consciously reducing speed to achieve the best outcome and bad slow is a traffic jam or the return counter at Walmart which are beyond your control. Speed can be exciting and exhilarating when you are ripping down the hill at 35 mph on your bicycle, but rushing through life, missing out on all the good times, is quite the opposite. Slow living is not doing everything in slow gear, it’s about slowing down and prioritising what’s important and assigning the right amount of time to your actions.
“Slow living is about intention, spending more time on things that are important and less on things that aren’t.” — Brooke McAlary
Travelling on the dirt road byways of the High Plains and the Mountain West is a good slow. Whether I’m on a bike or in an automobile I prefer dirt roads over all other thoroughfares. I have never been caught in a traffic jam on a dirt road, at least not with cars. I’ve had to wait for the odd herd of cows to move out of the way, or a herd of elk to jump the right of way fence but that’s a good slow. Some of my favorite memories as a kid were cruising the dirt roads along the Spoon River with Grandpa, fishing for catfish.
Slow Good
On the big paved highways you can only stop at approved spots along the route; rest areas, gas stations, or towns. On the dirt I can pull over just about anywhere, and drive as slow or as fast as I want. When I’m out riding the dirt roads on Double Cross (Gravel Bike), I often just spread my picnic lunch out right on the edge of the road and relax and enjoy a meal, rarely ever being interrupted by another human but when I’ve ended up on the side of the road with a flat or some other mechanical failure, every vehicle that has passed by in the last four decades has stopped to offer assistance. That doesn’t happen on the highway where everyone’s in a hurry.
“Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, it arises naturally as we slow down and notice what is already there.” — Haemin Sunim
Photography is one of those things that I attempt to do better not faster. It helps me slow down and see more deeply into things, searching for shape, color, texture and emotion. I love nothing more than to spend a day, (or a week) getting lost on gravel roads, listening to good music on the stereo and searching the landscape for interesting images. I hunt images for myself, though I share them freely, and it’s not only beauty that I hunt with my cameras.
I took the scenic route home from Burlington a few days ago in the Jeep, so I thought I would share a few of the images I collected. There is only one paved route between here and there but there are enough dirt road options to keep me busy for the rest of my days.
There are a few more images in the Smugmug Gallery if you are interested.