If you are fortunate enough to have a job and to follow the relatively normal, hectic routines of modern living, you’ve come to know that spare time is something precious. And, as with spare change, there is often not enough spare time to do something substantial.

If you suddenly had an unexpected chunk of time with no immediate obligations to fulfill, how would you spend it?

Once you start thinking about it, the possibilities pile up thick and fast. Doing nothing, perhaps long-imagined, almost seems too indulgent or pointless next to so many other things crowding the list of “if there were time”: someone you want to get back in touch with…a book you’ve been dying to read…an article you’ve been meaning to write…a walk you’d love to take…a recipe you’d like to try…

Imagine having the freedom to spend a few hours breathing in the ocean, thinking, dreaming, meditating—time spent in slow motion, just seeing and being, observing. You really can slow your world for a while. Many of us have a place associated with relaxation and renewal, usually on vacation. How can we bring that into every day life?

Most people have spare time in small, intermittent chunks, yet they can achieve momentous things by focusing on a single goal be it self-renewal or an outward expression of an inner world, whenever they have spare time. They write books, compose music, invent things and in between the pockets of spare time they are thinking about their goal.

Believe it or not, some places in the modern world are actually conducive to slowed-down living. But even there, spare time is an interesting concept and experience. It’s partly an attitude, partly a choice, and partly an acquired taste.

Oliver & Barbara