so what do we all mean by 'slow living'? - by tina zhang

July begins outside of a west village bar. I’m running late to meet Christine for dinner, flushed, and fresh off a month in paris. As soon as I see her standing on the sidewalk, I feel an instant sense of gratitude to be home. We hug, and she asks how it feels to be back. I describe this feeling of disorientation that I have been feeling since returning to new york: that the city is somehow more vivid upon arrival. Louder, brighter. Christine tells me that she experiences this too every time she returns from europe. It becomes almost deafening when all the passing conversations, bits of gossip, pleasantries materialize from background noise to something discernible. In paris, I had the luxury of not knowing. Thanks for reading digital tinz! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. In A Creative Act, Rick Rubin describes how listening is one of the only pure forms of staying present. Whereas the other senses have mechanisms for turning off (like closing your eyes or

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