What does a "slow life" mean to you?

I’ve been thinking of approaches to floral design, especially my own approaches.

When I do floral design, there is a huge difference between traditional garden club lady floral design and Ikebana floral design.

Ikebana floral design is “slow” and thoughtful. It calls for each plant piece to be carefully considered. We consider how it grew, where it faced the sun, what cultural influences were on it as it was growing. We place it in the arrangement carefully, relating it to other pieces of plant material in a cohesive way. In the Ikenobo school there is a tall, a medium, and a short Visual field and each plant piece needs to carry out its place in the design.

In the garden club designs I do, I’m not especially considerate of the plant material. It is more like “ fast” consumption. I buy armfuls of it or pick armful of it to use in design, so I’m really consuming mass quantities of plant material. I think there’s less of that in Japanese design.
I don’t think about how each flower grew in Mother Nature or how it was facing the sun or where the shade fell on it. It’s just a commercial thing for me to use.

That said, we garden club people do know how to make floral designs from minimal materials. I think the Japanese way is very respectful of the plant material but the other way of design, not so much.