Read freely · 13 virtues
Slow Life Virtues
Find depth in the time available without judging those whose lives cannot slow down.
There is a pleasure in giving soup time to cook for someone, taking a long walk without an errand, or staying with a book as its story unfolds. A tune has time to be heard. A meal becomes company as well as food. The day can also leave room for enough sleep, instead of treating rest as what remains after everything else. Slow living gives these experiences a place of their own.
These thirteen virtues explore that room: how to enjoy it, recognize enough, welcome another person into it and notice whose work makes it possible. Not everyone can choose a slower hour or evening. A smaller opportunity is worthwhile too, and some needs deserve prompt action. The invitation concerns the time and choices you actually have.
13 virtues · 13 weeks per program cycle
13 virtues to practice
- 01
Patience
Allow worthwhile work the time it actually needs.
- 02
Attentiveness
Give this moment more than your leftover attention.
- 03
Equanimity
Let a delay change the plan, not everything.
- 04
Temperance
Leave some pauses free from another input.
- 05
Gentleness
State the need without passing on your hurry.
- 06
Gratitude
Notice the good without making it an achievement.
- 07
Contentment
Let an ordinary day be enough.
- 08
Hospitality
Make a real welcome within your actual limits.
- 09
Discernment
Ask what makes this urgent before obeying it.
- 10
Curiosity
Look again before deciding you already understand.
- 11
Self-Respect
Let your own needs count beside those of others.
- 12
Perspective
Make room for the interests your irritation hides.
- 13
Compassion
Ease a welcome burden; do not prescribe leisure.
A fitting pace has a purpose
Patience allows a process its necessary time; Attentiveness gives the particular a hearing. Temperance leaves room to choose what to take in, while Contentment recognizes when a day need not acquire another achievement. Slowness has something to offer when it lets a worthwhile experience deepen.
The other person belongs in the picture too. Hospitality can give a shared afternoon room to wander. Gentleness keeps hurry from becoming needless harshness. Compassion may mean doing a welcome share of a task. Perspective includes people whose needs and contributions our preferred pace can hide.
What these virtues make possible
A tune can become familiar through listening. A meal can offer more than fuel, and an afternoon of making can be enjoyed before anything is finished. An ordinary evening can matter without an accomplishment to show for it. These are possibilities to notice and cultivate, not promised rewards for following a method.
Slow Life Virtues in ordinary life
A morning in the kitchen
Make a familiar meal for someone, when cooking and company are welcome. Let the onions soften and the conversation wander. Eating together can be part of the same unhurried occasion, with no elaborate menu required.
A walk with time to stop
Take a familiar route without an errand or a distance to achieve. Stay by the water or notice how the light changes on the return. A shorter accessible outing can have the same open pace.
An evening that can end
Enjoy a book or music without continually checking for something else. When you are tired, let an optional next episode wait and leave room for sleep. Rest need not be earned by finishing the list.
The time actually available
On a crowded day, hear the end of an answer or enjoy a meal’s second mouthful. Before advising someone else to slow down, consider what is taking their time and whether a welcome contribution would help.
Pace, possessions and company
Minimalist’s Virtues asks about the things we acquire, keep and use. This collection asks about pace and attention, including in a home full of useful things. Good Neighbor’s Virtues explores the recurring claims of shared space; slow living also asks whether our preferred tempo makes room for those claims.
Explore Minimalist’s Virtues · Explore Good Neighbor’s VirtuesBegin with an ordinary interval
Choose something you would like to give room to: a piece of music, a conversation, a book or an afternoon of making. A small available interval can also be a beginning. One cycle takes 13 weeks; four cycles take 52 weeks. My Virtues may contain any nonempty eligible selection.
Try it today
Give one familiar pleasure your attention today. If there is room, stay for the whole tune, another chapter or a conversation without a planned result. If there is only a moment, notice something you would usually hurry past.
Questions worth returning to
What needs prompt action, and what merely asks loudly?
Whose work makes my leisure possible?
Can this moment matter without becoming an achievement?
Keep the practice proportionate
Choose a practice that fits your actual circumstances. Do not delay urgent care, necessary work or someone else’s access in order to perform slowness. If a spoken limit would put your livelihood or safety at risk, private reflection is a valid starting point. Rest is not a prize for completing every task.
About these practices — DisclaimerTake one useful question with you
Read at your own pace, follow the thirteen-week cycle, or make an eligible selection in My Virtues. Reading alone is a complete use of this collection.