Hope Every Day

annkroeker — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:06:46 +0000

During this month of December, Talk at the Table is publishing a post each day with a focus on slowing down during Advent.

Here’s the opening post:

Hope Every Day

Browse through the days by visiting the main site and scrolling down, reading backwards through the journey.

Another place you may want to swing by to experience a contemplative Christmas thought or two is Holy Experience. Ann Voskamp offers numerous Advent thoughts, including 4 Ways to Celebrate Christ in Christmas.

Finally, do visit the Christmas Change blog. Take a few minutes to enjoy the devotional posts that are contributed by a wide range of bloggers. Ponder the inspiring thoughts and stories.

They may change the way you view Christmas.

They may change you.

Star image by Talk at the Table.

Get ready … Mega Memory Month returns January 2010!

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Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Dreaming of a Slow Christmas?

annkroeker — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:37:30 +0000

I’ve enjoyed following Aimee’s insights and inspiration as she shares her intentional choices to live a gentler, slower, simpler life day after day at Living, Learning and Loving Simply.

Aimee graciously granted permission for me to include THIS post in Not So Fast for the “Live from the Slow Zone” section.

Readers really respond to Aimee’s words. One time I was visiting a book club that chose to read Not So Fast, and one of the members of the group read out loud a few lines from that page in the book because Aimee’s words had impacted her.

Today, however, I wanted to share from a different post. It’s entitled “I’m Dreaming of a Slow Christmas.”

Aimee wrote:

I had to remind myself of these principles of slow living as I approached the Christmas season. About a week and a half ago I was feeling the anxiety, the pressure, the temptations towards unrealistic expectations (“everything must be handmade!”), and tears were coming and welling up way too often. I took a big breather and thought about what are the most important things to me at Christmas and then toss the rest.

It’s important to me to make my Christmas cards, play Christmas music excessively, bake lots of cookies, read my children great Christmas stories, and do our daily advent readings. But parties, full schedules, school work, running around town, homemade pajamas for my kids, patchwork Christmas pillows and handmade gifts for all who are important to me had to all get tossed from “the list”. Those things can be good things, but if they come between me and my relationship with the Lord, Mike, and my children, then…….

Read the entire post HERE…

(You may be interested to know that Aimee’s husband and brother-in-law were on the plane that landed on the Hudson River in January 2009. You can read some of her thoughts HERE and HERE).

Image by: Mike Chaput-Branson. “Cocoa w/Marshmallow,” 7 Dec. 2007. Flickr. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. (All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.)

Get ready … Mega Memory Month returns January 2010!

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Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Seeking a Simpler Christmas

annkroeker — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:39:25 +0000

I posed a simple question at my author-blog:

This Christmas, as schedules grow more hectic and shopping threatens to consume …

What do you want to be sure not to miss?

It turns out there is a lot that people want to be sure they don’t miss.

As a result, people are simplifying and slowing down some aspect of their Christmas celebrations:

Are you seeking a simpler, slower Christmas this year?

Have you blogged about it?

Share links in the comments to your slow-down stories and solutions.

And savor the season….

Peace ornament a gift from the group. Photo by Ann Kroeker.

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Traditions: Finding What Sticks

annkroeker — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:18:25 +0000

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come
(Revelation 4:8)

Sunday we pull out our Advent wreath and begin the season of anticipation, praying, pondering and worshiping the Lord Jesus, who was, and is, and is to come.

I bought an Advent wreath years ago and decorated it simply without realizing the fake plastic berries and cheap gold beading would be with us for years.

But that’s how traditions sometimes tumble into our lives:

We try something out.

And it sticks.

Here’s a picture I snapped last year:

It’s simple and humble, but it’s an integral part of our Christmas traditions.

We tried it, and it stuck.

Traditions … wow, traditions are so wonderful.

They can be simple or involved (though I prefer simple).

They can be planned out or spontaneous (I like both).

They can be borrowed or invented (sometimes I need inspiration from others; sometimes we’re creative on our own).

Regardless of how they begin, traditions that fit a family’s culture—traditions that reflect our personality and can be sustained over the years—end up weaving into our family story, forming our memories and tying together relationships.

They provide rhythm to our days, weeks, seasons, years.

In a tumultuous world, traditions can provide some familiarity and stability.

They slow us down.

Because Christmas has so many potential traditions, I often poke around the Internet to see what others do.

Perhaps you’d enjoy browsing the ideas I collected last year to share on my personal blog:

The Big Advent Collection

If your Christmas traditions are still evolving and you want to experiment with something new, check out some of them.

Perhaps a wonderful new tradition will tumble into your life.

And stick.

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Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

A Slow-Down Solution for Life: Giving Thanks

annkroeker — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:23:12 +0000

Over at my personal blog, I encourage readers to slow down and give thanks—not only this week or this Thursday, but regularly … all through the year.

The habit of giving thanks is a slow-down solution that can change our lives.

Thank you for joining me in seeking a slower lifestyle.

My hope is that this site becomes a place where you can keep up with research, studies, books, blogs and articles pertaining to slowing down.

More than anything, I hope we can learn to rest in the Lord, trusting in Him at all times.

Giving thanks to our Father through Christ Jesus is a way to grow in our understanding of who He is and how He works in the world and our lives. It’s a way to be in relationship with Him.

This week, as we try to slow down with family and friends to share a meal together, I hope we can all find ways to give thanks.

Give thanks to the LORD for he is good;
his love endures forever (Psalm 107:1)

Image by: Gisela Giardino. “Giving Thanks,” 23 Nov. 2006. Flickr. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. (All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.)

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Can Helicopter Parents Go Slow?

annkroeker — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:45:04 +0000

In case you haven’t already seen this popular post at Time, pay a visit to Nancy Gibbs’ article “Can These Parents Be Saved: The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting.”

Overparenting goes by other names, like hyperparenting and helicopter parenting. It boils down to being overinvolved in our children’s lives—perhaps to the point of holding them back.

Kids growing up with parents who take these approaches end up smothered, overwhelmed, overprotected, and ill-prepared for their transition to adulthood.

To give you a taste, here are some excerpts and memorable lines taken directly from the article (with bold from me):

We were so obsessed with our kids’ success that parenting turned into a form of product development.

[C]ollege deans described freshmen as “crispies,” who arrived at college already burned out, and “teacups,” who seemed ready to break at the tiniest stress.

[T]here is now a new revolution under way, one aimed at rolling back the almost comical overprotectiveness and overinvestment of moms and dads. The insurgency goes by many names — slow parenting, simplicity parenting, free-range parenting — but the message is the same: Less is more; hovering is dangerous; failure is fruitful. You really want your children to succeed? Learn when to leave them alone. When you lighten up, they’ll fly higher. We’re often the ones who hold them down.

“Our whole culture,” says [Carrie] Contey, 38, “is geared around ‘Is your kid making the benchmarks?’ There’s this fear of ‘Is my kid’s head the right size?’ … I just want to pull the plug on that.’”

The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that the decrease in free playtime could carry health risks: “For some children, this hurried lifestyle is a source of stress and anxiety and may even contribute to depression.” Not to mention the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation of kids who never just go out and play.

Some teachers talk of “Stealth Fighter Parents,” who no longer hover constantly but can be counted on for a surgical strike just when the high school musical is being cast or the starting lineup chosen. And senior year is the witching hour: “I think for a lot of parents, college admissions is like their grade report on how they did as a parent,” observes Madeleine Rhyneer, dean of students at Willamette University in Oregon.

It’s hard to fight the fears that prompt us to overprotect and overinvolve ourselves in our kids’ activities.

But it’s good to remind ourselves to let them build independence … and the confidence that will come from that.

If we reject the helicopter-parent approach, we may find ourselves significantly less frenzied and discover that we’re finally the parents we’ve wanted to be all along.

And that our kids are fine. Just fine.

Work Cited

Gibbs, Nancy. “Can These Parents Be Saved: The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting.” Time Magazine. Time.com, 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. >.

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Slowing Down Workaholics

annkroeker — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:33:06 +0000

Matt Dickerson wrote a great “slow-down” article at The High Calling (a resource for people seeking the high calling of their work and daily life) entitled “God’s Prescription for Workaholics.”

He begins:

We are a society addicted to work. Our culture worships a god of productivity, or more accurately a god of frenzied activity.

Even our pastimes of supposed “recreation” are often compulsive activities that keep us busy nonstop.

Busyness is our badge of honor. (Dickerson)

Yet the busyness that we seem to celebrate comes with a cost.

Our frenzied lifestyles, Dickerson says, are “costly to us as individuals, destructive of our relationships with God and one another, and damaging to the earth on which we live.”

The article points out that frenzied lives create frenzied relationships and a frenzied cycle of work-consume-spend-consume-work-consume (and so on). This is not healthy. We need a way to slow down, and God’s given it to us.

It’s rest.

Dickerson urges us to rest because it’s part of God’s plan for us.

The culmination of work, he says, is rest, pointing readers to another High Calling article about rest by Steven Purcell entitled “Rest Lies at the Heart of a Blessed Creation.” That article concludes:

Rest is God’s way of equipping us for the work that [God] has given us to do.

Rest and retreat are not only for those with a predisposition to quiet reflection—introverts, journal-keepers, and pensioners. Sabbath-keeping is the primary way men and women created in God’s image remember that our work is not about us … By responding to God’s instruction to observe periods of rest—every day, once a week, or on retreats—we participate in God’s intention to bestow his Shalom on all creation, which of course will deeply influence our personal lives and relationships. (Purcell)

Frenzied lifestyles cannot be sustained over the long haul without ill effects. We need a prescription for the symptoms we develop, and this article claims that God’s prescription is rest.

Dickerson poses a few questions for reflection, including these that I thought would be helpful to pose to Not So Fast readers, as well:

Think about your struggle with the disease of frenzy. What specific symptoms have you experienced?
When do you rest? What temptations prevent you from resting?

Works Cited:

Dickerson, Matt. “God’s Prescription for Workaholics.” The High Calling. 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=5280>.

Purcell, Steven. “Rest Lies at the Heart of a Blessed Creation.” The High Calling. 23 Dec. 2007. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=4397>.

Image: Orlosky, Dana. “Team Streeper.” 6 March 2009. Flickr photo. Flickr. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. (Available for non-commercial use through Creative Commons license.)

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Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

You’re living too fast if…

annkroeker — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:26:25 +0000

For some light humor about the high-paced lifestyle, visit this link:

You’re living too fast if…

Here are two that come to mind (updated to clarify that I made up the first example, but am probably guilty of at least thinking the second):

• You’re living too fast if … the drive-through employee knows your order by heart.

• You’re living too fast if … the dentist asks you why you don’t floss every day and you reply, “I just don’t have the time!”

How about you? Leave your own “you’re living too fast” scenarios in the comments!

High-speed motorcycle photo by Rob Owen-Wahl from stock.xchng.

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Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Slow-Down Reading

annkroeker — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:22:28 +0000

This year, once a week, I’m leading discussions on American literature for a group of high school students.

To prepare for the class, I’m studying the material in depth.

It slows me down.

I’m getting more out of each book and hoping the students will, too.

As I learn to read carefully, utilizing resources I’ve pulled together for the students, I’ve learned to appreciate at a much greater depth the material, style, themes, conflict, characters, history, and context.

By slowing, I am gaining much more—and retaining more, as well.

The first book we tackled as a class was The Scarlet Letter.

I’ve collected all of the ideas and resources for that unit into one place: a post over at “ann kroeker. writer.”

Join me as I attempt to “Explore the Classics,” beginning with The Scarlet Letter.

Stack of books photo by Ann Kroeker. Page from The Scarlet Letter* by* Ted Cabanes accessed from stock.xchng.

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Driven to Distraction

annkroeker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:39:18 +0000

An article in The New York Times stood out to me at the end of September: Driven to Distraction–multi-tasking in the car is risky business.

Our high-speed culture seems compelled to get as much done as possible in every moment, multi-tasking in motion, even if it puts us and others at risk. The article focused on the dangers of attempting office work while zooming along at 60 mph.

The story began with a man named Paul Dekok, who used to talk on his cell phone regularly while on the road.

He recalled a day when a job seemed so urgent, he “grabbed his cellphone to arrange a new shipment, cradling it between his left ear and shoulder, and with his right hand e-mailed instructions to his staff from his laptop computer — all while driving his rental car in a construction zone on a two-lane highway in North Carolina.”

He confesses, “I thought I was doing a great job because I was being productive … It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s the buzz we all get of trying to do everything you can in business.”

Another businessman, Sean Ryan, explained, “It’s a seconds-count economy.”

He schedules work calls to make his own 45-minute commute — from Boston to Framingham, Mass. — more productive.

At stop lights, he checks texts and e-mail messages. He does not want to miss something important, but he also sees the practice as a time saver. “I might as well get a quick e-mail taken care of, or at least delete spam,” he said. “When I get to the office, I’ve saved 15 to 20 minutes of work.”

But Mr. Ryan might want to rethink whether or not he’s truly saving that time—is he as productive as he thinks he is? The article referred to a growing body of studies suggesting that “such work may be less valuable than many people assume.”

The brain can effectively perform only one difficult task at a time, the article stated. When a person tries to multitask, important neural regions must switch back and forth, which takes time and is less efficient. When this is happening on the go, it means that some distraction is taking place. In fact, drivers sending a text or e-mail typically take their eyes off the road an average of five seconds.

Those five seconds of distraction–are they worth it?

The article tells the story of Samantha Dawn Earnest, who was driving down a quiet stretch of road with her three children, Jason, 7; Dakota, 5; and Hailey, 4. The kids were talking about decorating their bedroom walls, discussing a dinosaur vs. horse theme.

As Ms. Earnest crested a hill, a delivery truck “swerved into her car, spun it around and sent it careening across the highway. Jason died on impact.”

Ms. Earnest, stunned and bleeding, saw the truck driver walking toward her.

“I said, ‘Why, why, why?’ ” she recalled screaming at him. “He told me, ‘I just took my eyes off the road for a second because I was looking at my computer.’ ”

She started chasing him.

“I went into a mad rage,” she said. “If he’d said he’d fallen asleep, maybe I’d have understood. But using a computer?”

[The driver], 24, received a suspended sentence for negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and the Earnest family sued Mr. Noe’s employer, the ADA Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

The company settled, and the terms of the agreement are confidential. ADA did not respond to requests for comment.

Some people feel safe using the hands-free option while driving, but the article said that several studies show that drivers using headsets are as likely to crash as someone holding the phone to their ear. Also, that risk has been compared to driving at the legal limit for intoxication.

It was good to read that some corporations are imposing bans on cell phone use while driving—not even allowing hands-free use—and have found that productivity has not suffered.

Mr. Dekok, who was highlighted at the beginning of the article, has changed his habits. Now if the phone rings while he is driving, he lets it go to voicemail. He stops along the way and responds to the message within about 30 miles. He also lets others handle problems in the office when he is on the road.

His conclusion?

“After you go cold turkey, and get rid of the cellphone when you drive, you see other people’s behavior,” he said. “It’s like getting sober and realizing everyone else is still drunk.”

Sure, we could insist that we’re more productive if we peek at that text or glance at a laptop screen while we’re in motion. Our love of efficiency and need to maximize every minute could convince us to take that call (and take that risk).

But declaring a phone-free/screen-free zone when the car is in motion could save a life.

Hope Every Day

Star image by Talk at the Table.

Dreaming of a Slow Christmas?

Image by: Mike Chaput-Branson. “Cocoa w/Marshmallow,” 7 Dec. 2007. Flickr. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. (All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.)

Seeking a Simpler Christmas

Peace ornament a gift from the group. Photo by Ann Kroeker.

Traditions: Finding What Sticks

A Slow-Down Solution for Life: Giving Thanks

Image by: Gisela Giardino. “Giving Thanks,” 23 Nov. 2006. Flickr. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. (All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.)

Can Helicopter Parents Go Slow?

Work Cited

Gibbs, Nancy. “Can These Parents Be Saved: The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting.” Time Magazine. Time.com, 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. >.

Slowing Down Workaholics

Works Cited:

Dickerson, Matt. “God’s Prescription for Workaholics.” The High Calling. 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=5280>.

Purcell, Steven. “Rest Lies at the Heart of a Blessed Creation.” The High Calling. 23 Dec. 2007. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=4397>.

Image: Orlosky, Dana. “Team Streeper.” 6 March 2009. Flickr photo. Flickr. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. (Available for non-commercial use through Creative Commons license.)

You’re living too fast if…

High-speed motorcycle photo by Rob Owen-Wahl from stock.xchng.

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates. Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Slow-Down Reading

Stack of books photo by Ann Kroeker. Page from The Scarlet Letter by Ted Cabanes accessed from stock.xchng.

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates. Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Driven to Distraction

Photos and images from stock.xchng. “No phone” image by Kriss Szkurlatowski.

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates. Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates.
Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Stack of books photo by Ann Kroeker. Page from The Scarlet Letter* by* Ted Cabanes accessed from stock.xchng.

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates.
Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com

Subscribe to NotSoFastBook.com by e-mail or RSS feed for continual updates.
Get to know Ann Kroeker better at annkroeker.com