Through my Instagram account (which you will find here), I am challenging myself with something I call Slowvember.  The idea is that, in the midst of what is often a very busy month in my life, I am giving myself a word each day as a prompt to stop, contemplate, and slow down for at least a moment or two each day.

And it’s going well. I have completed the first seven days, and surprised myself with some of the connections my brain makes to each word.   Then, this evening, I sat down to read a poem or two out of a poetry anthology I am reading slowly, How to Love the World , and coincidentally, the poem I read was The Word, by Tony Hoagland, which you can read in full here, where it appears with permission. The idea of writing ‘sunlight’ on a to-do list is very much what I find myself doing, and even more so during Slowvember, and I love Hoagland’s rejoinder that ‘among your duties, pleasure/is a thing/that also needs accomplishing.’ Amen!

You don’t need to do Slowvember to take a moment to enjoy sunlight, or smells, or sights, or whatever it is that gives you pleasure, but I do wish you moments of pleasure this month. And, if you want to follow along by completing one or more prompt, feel free.