23 February 2020

You know when you get back from holiday and it feels like there’s loads to do and you long to stay in holiday mode? That’s what prompted the Summer Postcard series.

I ended up writing six postcards and sending them to people who put their hand up for one (they zipped all over the place—South Africa, Australia, USA, Switzerland and one just a few kilometres down the valley).

The postcards are done, holidays are over (everyone’s at work, schools have started back, term activities begun) but I am just not done with the slow vibe. Actually it’s not slow I’m after. It’s intention; that clarity that comes with having time and space from the usual obligations.

I keep thinking about the old metaphor of seeing our days (or life) as a jar, and the stones, pebbles and sand we fill it with. Put the big important things in first. Let the jar fill up with sand (which I see as the never-ending list of small, often inconsequential, things) once the main priorities have taken their space.

I’m glad I took time to write the itty bitty pieces that became postcards. I’m glad I took time to take the photos that went with them. These were like pebbles. They came after the stones—the more important things like reading aloud to my daughter, writing out lists of Pokemon with my son, listening to my oldest review dozens of movies, lying in the hammock reading, taking walks. But they came before the sand—the hundred small ways to fritter away the time, like shuffling paperwork from one spot to another. Or cleaning out the freezer.

I shared my postcard ‘pebbles’ on Facebook, but they are also on my website. If you want to, you can read the whole series below.

Take care,
Mary xx