Taking it Slow

My boys latest craze at present is the 'Slow Mo Guys', and if you have never heard of them you can be forgiven because I would be totally in the dark if it weren't for my boys.  Check them out here on YouTube if you like they are actually quite fascinating!    The Slow Mo Guys   They are a couple of guys that take videos of random stuff E.g Watermelon vs Rubber bands, video it and then slow it down, right down until its almost frame by frame.  There is probably a technical term for this but I have no idea and my boys aren't here for me to ask.   My boys have even had a go at making their own Slow Motion Video of dropping a water balloon from a height, filming it, editing it and posting it on YouTube.  Check it out if you please!!

But it was this fascinating Slow Motion Video that caught my eye. 

 Its totally amazing!

 I am uh-em 36 years old, so I have been around for a few years, we had dogs as pets growing up, my Dad used to show dogs, friends have dogs, and neighbors have dogs.  Farmers have dogs, there are dogs on the street and in the park. They are everywhere!!  And in all my life I did not know that this was how they drank.  Sure I knew they lapped water with their tongues but that's as far as it went.  It wasn't until I saw this video that had been slowed down virtually frame by frame that I could actually clearly see how they drank.

So while I was hanging out the washing yesterday I was thinking about this concept, the concept of slowing things down and how things become so much clearer and how you notice so much more of a seemingly small everyday concept.

Watch that video again and you can see the air bubbles that enter the water on his tongue. You can see every drop and droplet of water. You can see the texture of his nose and the minuscule hairs on the end of it

At the risk of being incredibly cheesy, one could learn a very important life lesson from this concept of Slow Motion, of slowing things down. Everyone's life is busy and there is really no way around being busy unless you make a purposeful effort, a conscious effort.  Whether you are a working Mama or a Stay-at-Home Mama, a student or an empty nester, everyone is busy.  But the thing with being this busy all the time is that we can't, we don't notice the small stuff, the seemingly unimportant stuff.

Slow down would you and I mean S-L-O-W D-O-W-N!  You don't really need to check your phone right now, to check Facebook this instant and you don't really need to vacuum that floor again.  You don't really need to fold that washing right now, not all the time.  What are you missing out on?  What are you not noticing? What aren't you seeing clearly?

My challenge to you is to take some time everyday, just once a day and just stop and be. Go and be with your husband, be with your Mum or Dad, be with your teenager, be with your little one cuddled up on your knee, maybe even be with the one that you carry inside you. Just be.

What do you feel?  What do you notice?  What can you see? What can you hear?  What can you sense?

Stop thinking about what is for tea or what you are going to bake next week for the school bake sale. Stop thinking about how you have just noticed dust under the computer desk or what you are wearing to work tomorrow.

 Just STOP, Breath and Be.

Notice the wind on your cheeks, the crunch of grass under your feet, the curls at the nape of your little boys neck.  Notice the smattering of freckles across your daughters face and how she licks the ice cream off her top lip. Listen to your teenager as you lie on their bed as they do their homework, paint her nails while you are there.  See your sons face when he masters a BMX jump or proudly finishes the lawns for you.  Smell the sweet salty scent of your toddlers head after they have been playing out in the sun.  Breath in the perfume of lined-dried-in-the-sun washing as you gather it in by the armfuls.   Notice the glistening beads of water  sprinkled sporadically on the broccoli after a shower of rain.  Hear the song of the Cicadas and the chatter of the birds as the bed down for the night.

I really could go on and on but my point is, is that there is so much for the noticing, and hearing, the seeing and the experiencing but it can only happen if you slow down.  

You and your life will be richer and fuller for it.

Its called LIVING LIFE!