Pleasing Myself
© canal by helen2006 (flickr)
Slowing down is never far from my mind. I’m reading Christopher Alexander’s fourth book in the series the Nature of Order, an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe . This body of work is often described as one of 21st Century’s most important documents on the theory of space, architecture, building, planning, and the way in which we view the world in general.
I am particularly struck by the relevance of his work to Slow Down London while reading the chapter called ‘pleasing yourself.’ In it he says that the within us there is a place from which comes our sense of harmony. And to create true living order – in a building, we need to please ourselves. How can we please ourselves? In Alexander’s words ‘..to do that you must first discover your own true self, come close enough to it, and to listen to it, so that it can be pleased.’
On pondering the stories I am struck by the fact that an essential ingredient for me to slow down needs to be time taken to reflect on what pleases me. Bringing my concentration to this subject seems to automatically slow me down and maybe more importantly give me pleasure as I think of things, people, places that please me. This exploration takes time, a commodity that we often we think we have little of and maybe even more than that it feels selfish, especially in the world in which we live at the moment. Yet I believe that this process of finding what pleases us and then doing that provides a type of nourishment that is important to ourselves, our lives and the world.
Deepa Patel – Director, Slow Down London
