I did not expect to relate very much to Dominique Browning while reading her memoir, Slow Love. It's about a woman, Dominique, who found herself let go from working as the editor in chief of Conde Nast's, House & Garden. I'm a stay at home mom, about as far way from the whirling world of magazine life as possible, and have never been fired. How could I possibly relate?
Turns out I can.
Without her job, Dominique feels purposeless - drifting, her whole sense of self ripped away. She spends her days in her pajamas sleeping, until finally she develops a system to get herself out of the house. One errand a day. One thing to get herself out of bed and showered, even if she only returns home to her pajamas, at least she got out. With this, she slowly starts the process of lifting herself out of, well, herself.
Hello! Anyone ever have a kid before?
That's exactly what I did during those first few months with a newborn. I spaced my Target run, my grocery store run, my Costco run, and every other errand possible, so that I had one place to go to that day, one reason to get out of my pajamas covered in some kind of baby fluids. Mascara! Something to make me feel like a person again instead of, well, a baby food provider.
Dominique also talks about an on-again off-again relationship with Stroller, (false name very indicative of their relationship) someone she probably should never have been with, nor be with. I think that's something that everyone, on varying levels, can identify with. Why do we keep going back to bad relationships? We're drawn more to the emotions than the person themselves, just as Dominique is.
Slow Love isn't about how bad things eventually turn out okay, it's about how bad things can sometimes help us see ourselves. See what makes us happy, what we can get through, and the person we can become. It teaches us that sometimes we're going too fast and missing too much. Stop and smell the roses, right? Just do so in some great pajamas.
Want to learn more about Slow Love? Check it out at Blogher's Slow Love page, or to find out more about Dominique Browning, go here.
Set your life more easy take the mortgage loans and all you want.
Posted by: OlaPalmer32 | September 09, 2011 at 05:02 PM