The slow frederick manifesto

The Art of Being Where You Are

Being where you are is deceptively hard and surprisingly life-altering.It's an act of rebellion against algorithms, capitalism, and social media that accelerates us into a frenetic rhythm that's incompatible with a life well lived.The best things in life happen when you go just a little slower. When you are fully present in the place where you stand.What if the life you want isn't waiting for you to find more time, but for you to finally inhabit the time you have?What if the most radical thing you could do is fall in love with exactly where you are?

Frederick Has A Heartbeat

Cities have personalities.They emit messages – subtle whispers that call to certain people. Not all cities speak. Most are mute. But when you find one that speaks your language, you know it immediately.Frederick speaks.It whispers: Slow down. Look up. Notice the mountains framing our skyline. Feel the coolness coming off of Carroll Creek on a brisk morning. There's history in the bricks. There's future in the trees.The people who built this place understood something profound about time. They planted trees knowing it would take 30 years before anyone would enjoy their shade. They envisioned the Carroll Creek project decades before completion, persisting through floods and setbacks, knowing they might not live to see their vision fulfilled.This city blossomed from seeds planted by people who thought slowly, beautifully, deliberately.And now the city is the teacher.

Your Neighbors > Your Newsfeed

Living locally is the way out of our current collective mess.The wheels of warped capitalism and rage-fueled media cycles lose their power when we reconnect with ourselves and each other. They gain their strength from our separation – from feeling divorced from our local community and instead living in virtual spaces where our attention is monetized and our every move is tracked, categorized into a neat "customer persona", and reinforced in our feeds.This newsletter is explicitly about being right where we are – in our city, in Frederick, Maryland. And practical ways to do that.

A Different Kind of Newsletter

Most online advice on being present and grounded sounds nice, but feels impossible in practice.They're full of vague buzzwords that make your eyes glaze over before you've finished the first paragraph. They tell you to "be mindful" without telling you how. They suggest you "connect with nature" but don't mention where to find it. They assume you can dedicate two hours every morning to journaling, meditating, and achieving enlightenment before your first cup of coffee. They're written by someone who could be anywhere, for someone who lives nowhere in particular.The Slow Frederick Newsletter takes a different approach. An intensely practical one.Instead of abstract concepts, we focus on concrete experiences: Saturday morning farmers markets where you can smell bread baking three blocks away, the sound of your footsteps on Carroll Creek Park. The way the morning sun peeks into the back patio at Gravel and Grind as you sip your latte.Instead of generic advice, we offer specific invitations: where to walk when you need to think, where to sit when you need to breathe, which local events to attend when you need connection.Slow Frederick isn't only a "what's happening this weekend" newsletter.It's a "how to be here" newsletter.

Every Thursday, You'll Get...

Three weekend experiences carefully curated for slow-living – events that invite presence, connection, and meaning.
A complete guide to all farmers markets happening that week.
One simple practice to ground yourself, release stress, and return to your body.Everything here is hand-selected by a human being (me), not an algorithm. No hype. No outrage. No politics. Just practical ways to experience our community with intention and presence.

Who is Slow Frederick For?

It's for anyone who calls Frederick home. But especially…-For anyone who crave the kind of tiredness that comes from walking instead of scrolling
- For anyone who's forgotten what their neighborhood sounds like without earbuds in
- For anyone who want their Saturday mornings to feel spacious instead of stuffed with obligations
- For anyone who occasionally fantasizes about leaving the hustle of daily life and living out the rest of their days on a goat farm, but probably won't actually do that
- For anyone who has an itching sense that there's a better, more nourishing way to live but have only gotten glimpses of it---The people who built Frederick understood something we're still learning: that the most radical act is simply being fully present in the place you call home. They planted seeds of slowness, beauty, and intention that we're still benefiting from today.Now it's our turn to practice their art—the art of being where you are.This newsletter is your weekly reminder that everything you're searching for is already here, waiting for you to slow down enough to notice it.I'm so glad you're here. And I would love to hear from you – I read every reply to these newsletters.It's time to reclaim our time, our attention, and our joy.Let's be where we are, together. Thanks for joining me.

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