A singular focus on slowing down the summer
I recently found my old CD album, the giant book of plastic sleeves that many of us tediously curated back in the day. Flipping through the pages, one by one, I smiled as I recalled memories — certain albums serving as soundtracks to highlights and lowlights of my teenage and early adult years.
Listening to an entire CD or record is an act of commitment, an experience that helps the soul form a relationship with that particular list of songs. I went to high school during the mid to late 90s when a variety of musical genres were firing on all cylinders. Flipping through that old CD album reminded me of my eclectic taste and how an array of pop, rap and grunge artists were uber popular at the same time.
During high school, my favorite artists swung the pendulum from Tom Petty to Tupac and The Cranberries to Nirvana. Other favorites were The Fugees, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Weezer, Sublime, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and others.
This month I passed down my old Nissan Pathfinder to my 16-year old and bought a new car which doesn't have a CD player. It's the first car I've ever driven without the option of playing CDs, and it makes me sad to think I can no longer slide a disk into a slot and hear the same band or musician croon for over an hour.
The days of Spotify and Apple Music have made it too easy to create playlists and skip songs or listen to a multitude of artists in a short time frame. The discovery of my old CDs, along with the emotions it conjured, made me realize that it's not only the forgotten art of listening to a single album that I was missing, but also the way it slows down the nervous system when we focus on something singular — a rarity in today's multi-faceted digital age.
Without the ability to listen to CDs in my new car, I've decided to purchase a small CD player and reconnect with all of my old albums. It's time to blow the dust off those old discs.
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The day before I handed off the Pathfinder to my son, I took it to a car wash where you pull into a bay, drop in quarters and turn a knob to spray/soap/rinse. Admittedly, it’d been years since I'd used this type of car wash. I typically take the easy route and drive it through Autobell or very occasionally wash it in the driveway.
Hearing those quarters hit metal, turning the dial to spray then washing my car by hand took me back to my high school days again. Washing my car in this manner was a Saturday routine when I was a teenager, those days when I had plenty of hours of boredom to fill.
Similar to listening to my old CDs, washing my car in a bay reminded me how rewarding it is to slow down and focus on a single activity, instead of trying to accomplish a number of tasks at once.
I thought of other things I used to do that were slow and methodical such as crafting scrapbooks, writing my friends notes by hand, watching an entire movie without the distraction of cell phone notifications, making cookies from scratch, creating mixtapes, cutting out magazine pictures and making a collage on my bedroom wall.
Going down memory lane reminded me that I have the power to tap into those old habits and hobbies, to stimulate the wonderfully rare emotions that come from a flow state. The fast past pace of modern life and constant access to the internet robs us of simple pleasures, if we’re not careful.
This summer I'm going to be intentional about slowing down. Too often, the next few months are jam packed with activity because kids are out of school, but at the same time, it may be the only opportunity for families to put on the brakes and enjoy one another. Maybe it's reading every day on the porch or making a tangible photo album of a vacation or taking long walks every evening, sans phones. Whatever I decide to do, my main goal is to ease off the gas pedal and fully enjoy each moment, just like I did back in the day when listening to a CD in its entirety was the highlight of an afternoon.
(Susanna Shetley is an editor, writer and digital media professional. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
