I retired in 1983 after a 35-year career in education, most of it as a principal of elementary schools. It was the kind of work that did not lend itself to the concept of being slow busy. So what is “slow busy”?
Slow busy is a mental set that allows you to take on challenging activities and projects with the view that you will achieve your objectives in your own time line or level of difficulty. I suggest it is an acquired skill that is particularly suited to hunting, fishing and gardening, as examples.
Many of the things that Smitty and I do are challenging but at the same time we almost never hurry during a fishing trip or let anxieties get in the way of what we are doing.
For many years we have fished the waters around Port Hardy with considerable success, but during that time we have earned the reputation of fishing during banker’s hours – on the water late in the morning and early afternoon returns to the wharf. We do not get excited if we do not catch fish, and we do not get unduly excited when we do well. Things just flow along on a sort of even keel.
Our hunting trips are dominated by the same philosophical approach, although at times when a large animal such as a moose is shot we go into a pretty active mode till things are under control. Then we just complete the tasks ahead on a slow busy routine that seems to get the job done.
Recreational fishing is an activity that has many different varieties and for me most of them can be done with a slow busy approach. Trolling, shore fishing with a float and worm, halibut fishing, jig fishing, bait or spin casting, beach fishing and most forms of fly-fishing are amenable to this approach.
I spend more than a little bit of time in my fly-fishing punt. I am one of the few people who can say to my wife, Elaine, “I have to go to work today.”
Fly-fishing from a small punt is close to the perfect slow busy activity, which has huge challenges that can be mastered by anyone willing to spend the time to get involved. As in all fishing the objective is to catch fish; however this variety blends itself to many offshoots that add excitement and unplanned thrills to the activity.
Fishing from my punt offers a secure platform to enjoy the skills of casting, which I do while sitting down or slowly rowing across the quiet waters while trolling a fly. It is during these nature-bonding fishing adventures that I find myself watching insects, birds, animals and all the displays of nature that go with stillwater fishing – it is slow busy work at its best.
Another type of slow busy work is tying flies throughout the year. Fly-tying is one of those work activities that can be a constant psychological bridge between the real world of time and place and the dream world of quiet waters, rising trout and the lonely call of the loon.
During the course of a year I tie hundreds of flies – some for fundraiser events and many for special fishing situations. They are all tied on a slow busy schedule.
We live in a society that places great pressure on its working people to excel and do things in tightly prescribed timelines. When we reach retirement we often have many challenges in changing our work schedule from one of strict controls to one where we can still have challenges; but avoiding the pressures that frequently went with the world of work.
Doing challenging activities with a slow busy mindset has many positive payoffs. While you may be focused on a specific objective like trying to get the right fishing lure in a special situation – there is an unhurried approach to solving the challenge.
The payoff to a slow busy approach to our daily living has to do with getting satisfaction from meeting daily problems on our own time basis, guided by the wisdom of age and the vision of youth – “Catch a fish so big you do not have to lie about it afterwards.”