Inspiration Mondays: The World of Pratchett's Nomes

"The other humans around it are trying to explain to it what a planet is."
"Doesn't it know?"
"Many humans don't. Mistervicepresident is one of them."
- The Thing and Masklin, from Terry Pratchett's Wings, The Bromeliad Trilogy

Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors, and The Bromeliad Trilogy is one of my favourite series. It's about a society of Nomes (not gnomes, they hate that) that have lived inside a department store for so many generations that they know nothing of the outside world. Their world is changed forever when the department store is scheduled for demolition. Their biggest challenge is communicating with the humans, who live their lives ten times slower than the Nomes, and who are big, stupid, lumbering creatures who can't see the obvious things that are right in front of them. In the end, they discover the truth about themselves and their place in the universe.

I'm an advocate of the slow life: slow food, slow days. I don't have a smartphone. I bake my own bread and cook most of my own meals from scratch. I grow my own vegetables. I pick my own raspberries and strawberries. I read books printed on paper, one chapter a night. And, of course, I knit and crochet, spin and dye my own fibres. I like to study processes, how things work, how things are made, and how they were made long ago. I am delighted by old cookbooks, historical documentaries, and the stories told by our elders.

Think of my delight when I discovered this video.



It's so cool what you see when you slow down, huh? This is the world the Nomes would see. It's amazing to see it as if I were one of them.

I think I'll be watching the hummingbirds in my garden a lot more closely now.

I'm not giving up my microwave or my hot water heater or my air conditioner. I think I'm just going to try to remember to breathe deeply, watch carefully, and be receptive to what's going on around me. I don't want to miss a single minute.