{"id":2749,"date":"2023-11-09T11:41:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/?p=2749"},"modified":"2023-11-20T13:14:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T19:14:29","slug":"slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/2023\/11\/slow-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection>\n<p><strong>By Tial Chin &#8217;26<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"838\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2023\/09\/pierre-bamin-CFzK-jX2g5s-unsplash.jpg?resize=838%2C548&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2495\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Proverbs 27:1 \u201cDo not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br \/>Sometimes life can get so busy that we forget to take a breather.<br \/>Instead of managing time, we allow time to manage us.<br \/>Or at least that is how it has been with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the beginning of this semester and towards the end, I had felt like a robot who had been<br \/>programmed to operate non-stop. Whether it was school work, labor work, meetings, or family related business, everyday felt like a continuous string of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am sure I am not the only one to feel this way. To feel as if there is not enough time in a day to finish everything. To feel as if you are surviving but not living. But what if I told you that it is alright to not finish everything? To allow yourself to spend 60 seconds or minutes doing nothing ? We often become so consumed in our world\u2013our schedules\u2013our lives, that we forget to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around 9am on a gloomy cold Saturday morning, I decided to walk to the creek to take pictures<br \/>of nature for a project. It took quite a while to get there as it was my first time heading there<br \/>alone. At first I was upset that I was unable to get any good pictures of organisms. A majority of<br \/>the trees had lost their leaves. Annoyed, I hurried back to head back to my dorm. However, I<br \/>noticed that it was eerily silent. No sounds of birds chirping and no sounds of cars. Suddenly I felt<br \/>a strange sensation. It felt as if I was being watched! I looked to the side and was surprised to see<br \/>a deer laying down and staring at me ! Seeing the deer so relaxed made me want to sit in front of<br \/>it and relax too. That&#8217;s what I ended up doing for about eight minutes. I had never felt more at<br \/>peace than that particular moment. I sometimes still wonder if it was a sign from heaven to relax.<br \/>This encounter with the deer reminded me of the importance of enjoying today\u2013 as in the present.<br \/>Tomorrow is not promised so today is a gift. So slow down and try to live in the present !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bible citation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coogan, Michael D., editor. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Oxford University Press, 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tial Chin &#8217;26 Proverbs 27:1 \u201cDo not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.\u201d Sometimes life can get so busy that we forget [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10038,"featured_media":2495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-2749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-faith"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2023\/09\/pierre-bamin-CFzK-jX2g5s-unsplash.jpg?fit=838%2C548&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2751,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749\/revisions\/2751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}