it's like pausing by the nearby creek with your new friend Cassandra, every two weeks – via private podcast & email
You're arriving at this little corner of togetherness on the Internet during a time in which Moment of Slow is closed to new members. Cassandra does this to be able to direct her attention towards the group and current members.
Moment of Slow is designed for people who are ready and wanting to weave something new, small, and slow into their care practices.
Moment of Slow comes to you in the form of private podcast episodes and emailed notes released through the whole, unfolding year of 2023 – adding up to 26 episodes and notes.
Moment of Slow is designed to feel like 26 reflective pauses by the nearby creek in the forest with Cassandra – or 26 reflective bench sits in a park if that's more your thing.
When you join Moment of Slow, you receive:
- access to a private podcast with fortnightly (aka every two weeks) Monday morning episode releases
- emailed notes as each episode is released with (1) the episode transcript so you have the choice to read or listen, (2) further support written by Cassandra in relation to the episode topic and what's alive in the present moment, and (3) open access to discuss the episode with Cassandra and fellow Moment of Slow participants
Each private podcast episode is:
- invitational
- unscripted
- unedited
- and recorded outdoors –
all with the clear intention of offering one human's synchronistic, naturally slow noticings directly to another human – you!
Listen to this preview episode:
if it feels good to you, you could close your eyes and observe your breathing while you listen.
Want to read the episode instead?
Is it clear within you that this offering aligns with you? It won't be an April Fool's joke when our next quarterly enrollment window opens up on April 1st for you to join!
Not clear just yet? (I likely wouldn't be clear either my first time learning about something new!) Keep on rolling – there's plenty more to share...
Moment of Slow offers you a break from the noise.
Moment of Slow offers you natural sounds and a friendly connection.
Moment of Slow grows in small, slow ways over the year – we simply can't rush our ways to feeling slow and intentional.
Moment of Slow comes to you in the form of 26 small, invitational conversations – via a private podcast and emailed notes. A new invitational conversation shared every other Monday over the 52 weeks of the year.
Imagine:
Imagine, as this year unfolded, you could move with some more ease and intentionality that suited your body, your connections with others, your daily rhythms, your monthly goals, and your life visions.
Imagine you could witness and connect with more of the synchronistic messages around and within you.
Imagine you could touch in for kind, regular support that nurtured your slowly ever-evolving presence practice.
Moment of Slow is here to offer you an easeful, compassionate, and reliable rhythm through the year for these imaginings to unfold.
I invite you to imagine another path:
Imagine, as this year unfolded, you could find yourself moving with a bit less rush.
Imagine you could flow with a bit less 'compare and despair,' whether it be comparing yourself to others or past versions of yourself.
Imagine you could feel a bit less isolated as you went about your days and rhythms.
You may wish to add or subtract as you move into this new year.
Moment of Slow meets you where you are and moves with you through your year.
Moment of Slow isn't guaranteeing these imaginings will come to fruition. That said, each moment of slow is ready for you to join in, experiment, and be with the delightful surprises that unfold!
Moment of Slow is designed to live and grow alongside your existing care practices.
Moment of Slow might be one of the missing puzzle pieces in your care practice.
Moment of Slow could even weave into your existing care practices, strengthening what you've already established for yourself.
Moment of Slow is a far cry from a quick fix.
It's also a far cry from an all-in-one solution.
Moment of Slow invites you to slow dance with the worlds around and within you, guiding you to view from a different perspective each time.
Moment of Slow certainly invites more questions than answers.
Moment of Slow leans more into unlearning rather than learning.
Moment of Slow taps more into regenerative revisiting rather than ceaseless novelty.
Moment of Slow holds you more than pushes you.
When our next quarterly enrollment window opens, you'll be able to choose between three sliding scale payment options:
Select the option that best aligns with your budget and your day-to-day reality. Each option receives the same elements.
- Accessible Care Rate: $30 for the year - this option is for you if your budget or your day-to-day reality do not allow for you to receive the care you need. This rate centers people who serve in care roles themselves and desire to balance the care they give with the care they receive and people who are working with small personal budgets.
- Market Rate: $60 for the year - this option is for you if you want to and are able to pay the market rate for Moment of Slow.
- Bridge the Gap Rate: $90 for the year - this option is for you if you want to and are able to bridge a gap created by our current society's wealth disparities.
Ready to join Moment of Slow?
It's between open enrollment windows right now so read on for inviting slow into your joining process!
It'd be odd if you needed to rush to join an offering about slowness, yeah?
Here are two ways to invite slow into your joining process:
- Each sliding scale payment option includes a 15 day free trial before your paid membership goes into effect
- Join during one of the quarterly open enrollment windows through the year and receive all the goodies
1. The 15 day free trial:
Each sliding scale payment option includes a 15 day free trial before your paid membership goes into effect. This gives you a window of time to discern if Moment of Slow aligns with you.
If over your first 15 days, you discover we're in alignment, you do not need to do anything as you already inputted your payment information. You are charged for your membership 15 days after you join.
If over your first 15 days, you discover we're not in alignment, you can cancel your membership and you will not be charged any amount.
2. The quarterly open enrollment windows:
- January 07, 2023 - January 31, 2023
- April 01, 2023 - April 30, 2023
- July 01, 2023 - July 31, 2023
- ~ The next and last! open enrollment window ~ October 01, 2023 - October 31, 2023
The three price options remain the same through the year. Whenever in the year you join, you receive access to all the episodes that have already been released and email notes that have already been published.
You can sign up to receive reminders of the remaining open enrollment windows!
Once you join, surprises will slowly unfurl:
As we move through the year together, there will be opportunities to connect with others who are also engaging with Moment of Slow.
These opportunities will be determined based on who joins and what needs and desires are shared, so they are delightful unknowns as of now at the beginning of our year-long adventure. These opportunities will be shared through the fortnightly email notes.
When you join Moment of Slow, you can also choose to begin a Slow Writing Creative Partnership with Cassandra (keep scrolling to learn about it).
Readiness is an individual journey.
Slowness is personally defined.
Intentionality shifts with the seasons.
If what's shared resonates, you are who I made Moment of Slow for.
Join if and when you feel called!
You'll receive 26 moments of slow through the year and more delightful surprises along the way. It's that delightfully simple!
Many questions in life go unanswered, but here are some answered ones!
Content-based questions
Q: What are the prompts / invitations / touchstones about?
A: The invitations are nature-inspired, body-based, and all accessible by reading or listening.
You can simply ponder the invitation and let it simmer through your day. You can write it down. You can weave it into your conversations with others.
Some are mantras, some are thought experiments, some are creative experiments, some are opportunities for new patterns, and oh so much more!
Q: Why is slowing down the focus?
A: The word "slow" resonates within me as intentionality, response-ability, and tending to my attention. It's not as much about speed or pace, though sometimes it could be.
I've been a dancing being my whole life and I've been working and learning with young children almost my whole adult life. In my varied experiences with dance and with young children (and sometimes both simultaneously!), I've seen the ill effects of unintentional rush and hurry. Whether it's the body becoming injured or simply being unaware, or the push for young children to grow and develop faster than possible, the expectations weigh heavier and heavier. The expectations to have the answer now and even better – yesterday!
Slow is an alternative pathway, perhaps it even weaves through the underworld. Slow is a language, a way of communicating with oneself, in the in-between between you and another, and with the beyond.
Slow unfolds. Moment of Slow gives us rhythmic opportunity to witness and be in relationship with the unfolding.
Q: What has led Cassandra to offering a program like this?
A: My response above answers this partially. I've been following the breadcrumbs of slowness for awhile now.
I've practiced yoga since I was a young teen, (unknowingly at first) gravitating towards Iyengar Yoga that honors sinking into the details of the postures and including supportive props for the body. I knew I desired to be an educator but I also knew I didn't wish to be in learning environments with overly rigid timetables. I witnessed three year olds in awe of growing vegetables and was in awe of these young ones (the humans and the veggies!) and their relationship with one another. While leading a nature-based early childhood program, one of the workshop I designed for early childhood educators was entitled What's The Hurry? Let's Slow Down to Develop Naturally. I humbly think I may have hit a collective nerve with that one, every person who moved through that workshop shared their appreciative agreement with the layered question of "what's the hurry?"
And then for many of us, as the pandemic made its presence known, our worlds stopped moving at the clip they had been moving. I felt like I could breathe with a depth that I had only been able to feel when on a road trip, vacation, retreat, or in a yoga or movement class. I was content feeling this slow spaciousness only during those times but having the awareness this was possible during a regular day revealed that another way was possible.
As I sense you may agree, the pandemic has surely brought fear, deep sorrow, anxiety, and isolation. And it's brought new opportunities for new ways of being and living. One of the many opportunities these last several years has revealed to me is that I can host group containers for others, like me, who are in absolute awe of life and the many ways we get to live it.
Tech-based questions
Q: I don't listen to podcasts. Is Moment of Slow for me?
A: Participants access the fortnightly audio recordings within a private podcast. There are two main different ways you can access the private podcast: (1) add the unique link you receive into your preferred podcast listening app (this will work in most apps) or (2) listen to the podcast via a web browser by simply copying your unique link and pasting it into a web browser.
Read this introductory note provided by Captivate, the podcast hosting platform I use, to learn more about the multiple ways to access the private podcast.
All transcripts are included within the fortnightly emailed note so you could also choose to solely read the episodes.
If you're feeling a pull to join and try something new, Moment of Slow may very well be for you!
Q: I don't read email newsletters. Is Moment of Slow for me?
A: My response to this question is a bit different than my response above. The emailed notes will include information that is not included in the podcast episodes.
I write further support relating to the episode topic as well as whatever is alive in the present moment. There is also open access to the comment section to discuss the episode with me and fellow Moment of Slow participants. You will also receive delightful surprises via the emailed note. These surprises will be determined based on your needs and desires, and email and the comment section will be the main ways of sharing your needs and desires.
I'll say again, if you're feeling a pull to join and try something new, Moment of Slow may very well be for you!
Q: When I join, how do I get access to the private podcast and emailed notes?
A: When you join I will email you a unique-to-you link to access the private podcast. You can add this link to your preferred podcast listening app (most but not all accept private podcast links).
Read this introductory note provided by Captivate, the podcast hosting platform I use, for multiple ways to access the private podcast.
Even before you receive your first fortnightly Monday email, you have access to all the Moment of Slow emails through the Be With Cassandra website. Sign in through the portal and you'll be able to see all the emails that have already been sent out.
You will receive your first fortnightly Monday email the first Monday after you join.
Q: I'm not tech savvy and it seems like there's a lot of tech to figure out before I gain access to the resources. Is Moment of Slow for me?
A: Everyone has a different relationship and different experience with technology. I personally think that once you choose the way you'd like to listen to the podcast and you see the first email come into your 'priority' email inbox, you'll be set to go.
I am right at the other end of each email you receive so once you join, you are always welcome to reply and let me know if you are seeking some remote tech support along the way.
The delightful surprises that will unfold through the year may include some other tech tools (like Zoom perhaps?), which I'm happy to offer remote tech support as I can.
Logistics-based questions
Q: Why can I not join whenever I want to through the year?
A: The quarterly open enrollment windows provides me with the slowness I desire and need to embody as I facilitate this container.
Q: What exactly does Monday morning mean?
A: Episodes are released every other Monday by 5am PST or PDT, depending on the time of year.
Q: Can I get a refund?
A: Every person who joins receives a 15 day free trial before their paid membership goes into effect. If you discern that Moment of Slow doesn't align with you during those 15 days, you can simply cancel your membership before you are charged.
Due to the nature of all participants receiving access to the private podcast and with that, all of the episodes that have been released before you joined, as well as access to all the emailed notes published before you joined, no, Cassandra will not issue refunds.
Q: Do you offer benefits if I join with a group? I'm in a group that would love to join together!
A: Yes, I offer a sweet benefit if you join with a group of 3 or more people (including you).
All the individuals within your group will be invited to co-design and participate in a private, virtual, live Moment of Slow group discussion with me.
As you all decide to join, each individual selects the payment option that aligns with their day-to-day reality and pays as an individual member. This way each individual will receive a unique link to the private podcast and the emailed notes with go directly to their individual email address.
After everyone in your group has signed up, select a point person for your group. I ask that the point person emails hello@bewithcassandra.com with the names of the individuals who are a part of your group.
I will work with the point person to determine a time and day that best aligns with your group's and my schedules for the group discussion. After a time and day have been selected, I will email all the individuals in the group an informal survey with questions that will inform the design and form of the group discussion.
Then the group and I will meet together and make magic!
The group discussion can be scheduled between the date your group joins and November 15, 2023.
Q: This is a lot of new stuff! What is included and what are the extras?
A: Yes, it's a lot of new stuff :-) If you join Moment of Slow, choosing any of the three payment options, you receive access to the private podcast with fortnightly episode releases and emails that arrive in your inbox with the episode transcript, further support written by me relating to the episode and what's alive in the present moment, and open access to the comment section to discuss the episode with fellow Moment of Slow participants and me. You will also be invited to join in delightful surprises along the way; these surprises will be determined based on your needs and desires!
The Slow Writing Creative Partnership is a way to go deep with 1:1 letter writing between you and me for 3 consecutive months. Once you join Moment of Slow, you can sign up for the Slow Writing Creative Partnership! This offering is an additional investment beyond Moment of Slow.
Q: What happens during the weeks that I don't receive a Moment of Slow?
A: So much life can happen in a week and more in two weeks! The "in-between" week when you do not receive an episode or an emailed note can be for so much – or for more slow!
If you weren't able to listen to or read a Moment of Slow one week or a few, the in-between time is spaciously available for you to touch back into the missed ones. This in-between time offers an alternative to the only way to "catch up" being to rush through or to jump over and past.
This in-between time can also be for centering other elements of your care practice.
Have a question that hasn't been answered here? Send it my way! Your question (excluding your name and personal things) along with my response may be added below so others can benefit as well.
As this experiment in belonging begins, Cassandra is personally exploring these questions:
- How does offering small, consistent touchstones of support shift our stories of collective and self-care?
- How does offering small, consistent touchstones shift our stories of isolation, loneliness, and interconnection?
- What does a 'care practice' mean? How is it different and similar to self-care and collective care?
- How does it work to invite humans into more private virtual kind-of-group/kind-of-solo containers? How does it not work? How does it work so-so?
- Where will we each journey with these incredibly varied, though similarly rooted touchstones? How will we each have changed by the end of this journey?
- What surprises will unfold along the way?
- What does it mean to offer a year-long journey to people? What are the assumptions? expectations? wishes? desires? needs?
- What systems support a year-long journey like this? How can these systems be co-designed and developed in a slow, intentional pace?
If you'd like to journey with these questions, too, Moment of Slow is for you.
Join Cassandra in a Slow Writing Creative Partnership
As you move through Moment of Slow, you may realize you'd like to dive deeper into particular invitations or your slow and intentional practices in general.
The Slow Writing Creative Partnership is made for you, then!
The Slow Writing Creative Partnership is an optional step if you desire to take it.
I connect with this partnership through a role called Creative Partner. I have self-designed (and am in a continual state of co-designing) this role to, at its center, serve as a creative sounding board.
Given that, the Slow Writing Creative Partnership is a private container to be witnessed and have your words reverberate off the page, growing even more tangible as they are shared with me.
How it works:
When you join Moment of Slow, you are able to begin a Slow Writing Creative Partnership with Cassandra.*
After you sign up for the partnership, Cassandra mails you a welcome package including a welcome letter with questions to guide the partnership and all the letter writing supplies you need to write three letters – this even includes three stamps if you are located in the US!
You initiate the partnership by sending the first letter to Cassandra and including your responses to the questions in the welcome package. You can choose to focus the content of your letter on a particular Moment of Slow invitation or delve deeper into your general slow and intentional living practice.
When Cassandra receives your letter, she reads it – likely re-reading several times! She then writes and sends a response to you. Cassandra responds with reflection and care. Cassandra will respond to your letter within 14 days of receiving it.
Within the 3 month container, you are able to send three letters and receive three letters in response. Cassandra recommends sending one letter per month.
You receive two 30 minute live connections within the partnership container, as well. It can be helpful and partnership-deepening to dig into a topic synchronously, and these two connection times are included for just that reason!
You can choose to connect with Cassandra over the phone, Zoom, or text. You can utilize these two connections at any point during the three months.
*Due to the nature of the partnership containers's length being 3 months, enrollment for the 3 month container closes on Monday September 25, 2023.
When you join the 3 Month Slow Writing Creative Partnership, you receive:
- a welcome package with hand-selected letter writing materials from Cassandra (includes everything you need to write three letters – even three stamps if you are located in the US!)
- you send three (3) letters to Cassandra over the three months
- Cassandra reads and responds to each of your letters with a letter of her own – amounting to Cassandra sending you three (3) letters over the three months
- two (2) 30 minute live connections with Cassandra that occur via phone, Zoom, or texting
The 3 Month Slow Writing Creative Partnership is $550. You can join once you are enrolled in Moment of Slow. You can choose to pay once in full or pay in 3 monthly installments. Both are $550.
Akin to Moment of Slow, the Slow Writing Creative Partnership includes more delightful surprises along the way, too!
The intentional tending given to our partnership resources:
Cassandra asks that you snap a clear picture of your letter before mailing it to make sure there is a back-up should a mailed letter go missing. Cassandra will do the same for the letters she sends.
Taking pictures of each letter also allows the sender to have a personal record of what's been written and processed.
In each of Cassandra's letter, she will simply note how many letter exchanges remain in the partnership container.
Your mailing address is only used for partnership correspondence and during our partnership container.
Cassandra utilizes a co-working space mailing address that safely accepts and stores mail for her.
Some questions you may have that I have answers to:
Q: What can I write about in my letters?
A: The structure offered is to write about a particular Moment of Slow invitation or your slow and intentional practices in general. I welcome your authenticity, human being-ness, curiosity, and creativity.
I read your letters through the lens of a role called Creative Partner. I have self-designed this role to, at its center, serve as a creative sounding board. Given that, you are welcome to write (simply) to be witnessed and have your words reverberate off the page, growing even more tangible when I receive them.
If you're curious about what could unfold from within you by sharing with me as your Creative Partner, I'm thinking this might be for you.
Q: What will Cassandra write about in her letters?
A: Similarly to what I shared in my response above, I read and respond to your letters through the lens of the role called Creative Partner. I have self-designed this role to, at its center, serve as a creative sounding board.
In my responses to you, I intend to nurture a partnership with you. I intend to offer support with the Moment of Slow invitations. I intend to walk beside you as we intentionally slow together. I intend to ask questions that open new possibilities.
Like I said in the response above, if you're curious about what could unfold by being in a Slow Writing Creative Partnership, I'm thinking this might be for you.
Q: What if I sign up for the 3 month container, love it and want to start another 3 month container after the first one ends?
A: Likely, yes, you can start another!
I say likely because it depends on two things: my capacity and if there are three months remaining in 2023. If you are interested in starting another 3 month Slow Writing Creative Partnership after a first one, please check in with me via email, during one of our live connections, or in one of your letters about timing and availability!
Q: What if I don't write long letters?
A: Within this container, I plan to set aside 1-2 hours to read and re-read each of your letters. I'm ready to read long letters and to write back long letters. And to be clear, long can mean several handwritten pages.
So, if you don't write long letters right now but want to write them and want slow and intentional support in doing so, this is the partnership for you!
If you don't write long letters right now and you don't want to write long letters, then this partnership likely isn't for you.
Q: What if my handwriting isn't that great?
A: It simply needs to be legible!
Your handwriting doesn't need to look any certain way. You don't need to make your letter "pretty" unless you want to. We're centering the unfolding process and the deepening partnership, rather than appearance or artistic skill.
Have a question that hasn't been answered here? Send it my way! Your question (excluding your name and personal things) along with my response may be added below so others can benefit as well.
Meet Cassandra, one of the hosts:
It feels like I've been connecting with you through the process of writing and sharing this whole page but perhaps you want to know some more about me?
That picture is from my 32nd birthday (December 2022) when my husband, Nathan, and the dog, Ernest, and I found a sweet new-to-us spot in the forests of the Cascades.
I love to explore. Whether it's through the natural world, inner worlds, or shared worlds with fellow humans and more-than-humans.
I love to be warm. Whether it's literally with many layers of gear while outdoors or metaphorically in a friendly, warm environment.
I love to connect. Whether it's on the digital or analog page, over the phone, or on a walk together.
Lastly, I love to experiment. Whether it's designing a new professional role, embodying a new practice, or making new food (I have learned that finding and following a recipe the first few times is a great way to do this, and I've gotten good about only adjusting a few things in the recipe the first go at it).
Words and vibes I'm into lately:
transmute 🌀 attention 🌀 spaciousness 🌀 support 🌀 belonging 🌀 change 🌀 transitions 🌀 self-honor 🌀 care practice 🌀 momentum 🌀 container 🌀
Meet Ernest, the other sometimes host:
That picture above of Ernest? It's from when we were on a road trip from Washington down to California last year. Ernest got to meet his human cousins and human uncle and aunt for the first time and stay with his human grandparents. He really wanted to smell his cat cousin but he only got to look at him through the window.
Ernest is the dog I call kin. I try my best to not say "my dog" mainly because I like to think that he thinks of me as the human he calls kin, rather than "his human." But I also try my best to call him my kin because yeah, on one plane of reality I am his carer but on another plane of reality, he is also my carer.
He is with me for all but a few Moment of Slow recordings, romping, running, splashing in the creek. He, sweetly and sometimes not-so-sweetly, informs and influences the invitations I share.
I learn so much from Ernest – about partnership, about love, about play, about adventure, about the body and senses, about trust, and oh so much more.
Words and vibes he seems to be into lately:
outside 🐾 breeze 🐾 porch 🐾 forest 🐾 running 🐾 friends 🐾 lake 🐾 snow 🐾 squirrel 🐾 lounging 🐾 sleep 🐾 beach 🐾 look 🐾 smell
If you've arrived right here, right now, and you're ready to join, Ernest and I look forward to welcoming you in April!
Moment of Slow's quarterly open enrollment windows:
- January 07, 2023 - January 31, 2023
- April 01, 2023 - April 30, 2023
- July 01, 2023 - July 31, 2023
- ~ The next and last! open enrollment window ~ October 01, 2023 - October 31, 2023
Sign up to receive reminders of the open enrollment windows:
🐚 May we be in joyful, mutually beneficial partnerships however, wherever, and whenever they reveal themselves. 🐚
all photos by Cassandra except the two that are of Cassandra and were taken by Nathan Ellis