How did summer treat you? And where do you stand on routines? Personally, I was longing for autumn to come because it usually brings with it the peace and calmness of routines long lost through the summer’s maze of activities. I feel that routines give structure to an otherwise messy schedule and here I am, writing this post in my Thursday-blog dedicated day that have been missing so much during the summer.
Summers in Finland are short. In fact, some years they just never come. A prolonged and wet spring just melts into an early autumn and that was that. Sometimes they last for a couple of glorious weeks and you just have to make the most out of it. The thing is, summers in Finland feel like they’re slipping through your fingers or they’re ended before they even begin. I realized this phenomena when I moved to Finland a few years back; every time there would be great, warm weather, people would just cancel their plans and go to the beach. For me, coming from Italy where summers last at least a solid four months, I considered this approach absurd. Only later I realized that everybody was actually right: you really never know, is another summer day gonna come around or not. This creates anxiety to this slow living soul here.
The problem is, all of this summer hecticness interferes with my slow living philosophy of life. How can you savor every moment and live it to the full if you’re constantly feeling like running around, trying to do all the things you had agreed to do?
How to cope with it?
I haven’t really found a method yet. All my summers in Finland are usually super busy, stressful and go extremely fast. The only thing I know is that I’m happy summer’s over and I can go back to the “normal life”.
I was suggested by a friend to read a book entitled “Refuse to Choose!” and was hooked by the idea that some people just have many interests and is not necessary to just choose one, but one could just as well do all of them. Have you read this book or found any other book interesting on the topic?
One thing I realized is that there are some activities that are usually done only in the summer and are immediately packed and locked away in the storage once the leaves start turning yellow. And so I thought to myself, that canoe season’s summer and this year we didn’t have time to go paddling. Last week though, we went and it was the most beautiful time I’ve ever paddled. The colors of the leaves reflected on the water, the leaves falling on us like confetti, the stillness of the river, the blue sky; it was an explosion of sensation. No pictures from that trip, I didn’t have my camera with me, which was maybe a good thing. So really, sometimes we are the ones that limit our possibilities by putting labels or going with some common ways of thinking.
How about you? Are you glad that autumn’s back and routines get settled? I’d love to know your thoughts on the matter!
