Stand & Stare: A Gentle Rebellion Against the Tyranny of Speed
WHAT is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare? W.H. Davies asked that question a hundred years ago. Today the answer feels terrifyingly close to “most of our lives.” We have turned speed into a god. Faster internet, faster delivery, faster career, faster life. We get irritated if the laptop takes eight seconds to boot. We are sprinting so hard we’ve forgotten to check whether we’re running off a cliff. The antidote is not a two-week vacation once a year. The antidote is daily, deliberate, defiant slowness. Here are four ordinary moments where you can reclaim your life by refusing to rush. 1. Waking Up – Don’t Rip the Plug Out of the Wall Sleep is not a light switch. An angry alarm is the equivalent of force-quitting your soul at 3 % battery. Let the night shut down properly. Use a sunrise-simulating alarm (or at the very least put your phone across the room on very low volume). Give the body thirty gentle minutes to transition: dim light growing brighter, soft sounds rising like birds you’re not scared of. Wake up the way the planet wakes up: slowly, kindly, on purpose. 2. Preparing for the Day – Two Habits, Not Twenty You don’t need an hour. You need two non-negotiable tiny habits done before the world is allowed to speak to you: - Move your body for five minutes (ten push-ups, a short walk, gentle yoga—anything that proves you still live in it). - Still your mind for five minutes (breath, prayer, gratitude, silence—anything that reminds you you’re not your to-do list). Ten minutes total. If you “don’t have ten minutes,” you don’t have a life; you have a hamster wheel. 3. Working Through the Day – Never More Than Five Life is a multi-objective optimization problem with infinite variables and zero perfect solutions. Trying to do everything is the fastest way to do nothing well and enjoy none of it. So stand and stare at your chaos once a week and ruthlessly choose: What are the **five** things (maximum) that actually matter this season? Everything else is noise. Align every meeting, email, and errand to at least one of those five, or delete it without guilt. You’re not lazy. You’re a sniper, not a machine gun. 4. Ending the Day – Protect the Holy Wind-Down Screens are vampire energy after sunset. Blue light + breaking news + endless scrolling = a brain that arrives in bed still running at 180 km/h. Instead, choose one (or more) of these sacred slowdowns: - Lie on the floor and let your child or dog climb all over you. - Write three lines in a journal (what happened, what you learned, what you’re grateful for). - Read a real book made of paper until your eyes surrender (non-fiction for insight, poetry for soul, biography for humility—anything except the next dopamine thriller). Do this and tomorrow’s sunrise will feel like a friend, not a fire alarm.Final Thought
Speed is easy.
Anybody can run.
Courage is required to stop in a world that measures worth in miles per hour.
Stand beneath the boughs sometimes.
Watch the squirrels.
Feel the wind that has nowhere better to be.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Let’s make time.
Starting now.
(Close this tab.
Look out the window for sixty seconds.
I’ll wait.)