keri,
I love this idea... and it goes with the them of my latest blog post.

I also wanted to tell you that I found a message in a bottle. Not sure why I feel compelled to tell you this, but I thought you might smile.

Have a great day!

Dear Keri. I was in Central Park, and had conversations with the huge squirrels that inhabit the park. I tried to treat them with pretzels, but they rejected it and sang: "This and this and this I like (picking up seeds from ground) This I don't, this I don't (åointing at pretzel-crumbs) etc"
They are fun, indeed. And this is a true story.

Your absolute honesty cheers me....every time.
Thank you.

Hmmm,
Notes in trees, gonna do it.

I'm slowing down. I'm learning Hardanger (Norwegian embroidery). It's slow going but it is really nice to sew by hand. I don't like that everyone's lives seem so insanely out of control...slowness and simplicity are essential in today's crazy world... thanks for observing this.

Hello, you don't know me, but i've happened upon your blog somehow and i'm so glad that i did.
reading your words make me smile and think. thank you!
i wish that i could do slow, but, alas, my dumb life won't let me right now [that's what happens to professional violinists - we GOTTA practice, you know. ;-) ]
Thank you again for your creativity, your words and for sharing.

p.s. i saw your photos on flickr and *loved* them - they made me smile. thanks!

What a great idea. Gotta go slow down now...

thank you for introducing me to slow week. I love slow. Your ideas are fabulously inspiring (as always!). Actually I recently came across this link: www.slowdesign.org ... You might find it interesting.

I love this list. at the spa, where I live my alterlife, we have to walk about five times slower than usual to create the tranquil space desired in such an environment. I jump out of my car and rush in the back door, set down my things and proceed to carefully and very slowly l-i-f-t each item delicately out of my bag, changing gears. It is rather comical to think of. Before a concert one afternoon, a friend of mine and I went to the Self Realization Fellowship to walk around a bit. Traffic was bad, so she always refers to it as the Hurry Up and Meditate Tour. nice.

That is just too many stories.

Miss you, friend.

Probably the best advice I've ever gotten: when you have ten thousand million things to do and you feel so overwhelmed you could *scream,* just start doing something, but do it as slowly as is humanly possible. Works an absolute treat.

I love the simplicity of your tea illustration. Every day about 4:00pm I sit down for a cup of tea. I know my mum is doing the same thing hundreds of miles away, and for 30mins, no matter what else is going on, I allow myself to just stop and sit with no agenda other than to truly be in the moment.
I will try some of your suggestions this week to see if I can create that outside of my designated tea time :-)

So we even know how to slow down anymore really? This post was fun and whimsical but it is also so very IMPORTANT in the rawest, most crucial way because we are pacing ourselves and our precious lives so quickly that we are out of step and out of touch with ourselves and all that make this world so extraordinarily beautiful. Today, because of the snow, I was forced to walk slowly down to the shop, and I noticed everything I never had before from the crazy lines in the sidewalks to my own aging hands. Tomorrow I am going to do number seven for sure, and try to do some more this week. Thanks!!

Wonderful! Just what I needed! But wait. Can we still get to the weekend really fast, though? I hope so... ;)

I just dicovered reading you that except for the ink, I practice slow down week every day...

I made too much stains making my own ink, that's the reason why!

Aaaaaah! I didn't know about slow down week, but I started my day by having a massage. :-) Much needed after several months of knitting for crazy deadlines. I highly recommend it!

...ok, i will.

Thanks for letting me know! Slowing down is JUST what I needed this week...so I made a list of ideas on my blog too!

Oh, this is a wonderful idea! I can do all of these except perhaps number 3... My family would haave a nervous breakdown if I didn't answer the phone. literally.
I already write with a brush and ink... a feather quill pen a got for Christmas, with naturally-lost ostrich feathers. No animal cruelty involved. :-)

I have already done 4 of those things and I didn't know it was slow down week! Mind you I stop to talk to squirrels fairly often.

I love your list of exercises to slow down. I read the list very slowly...

In a rat-race world, "slow down week" is a great idea.