Last week, I went to Taitung and stayed for an entire week. I did not set an alarm for any particular time, nor did I open a map and fill each day with a list of places I absolutely had to visit. I woke up when I had slept enough, found something to eat when I was hungry, and if the weather was nice in the afternoon, I got on my bike and wandered wherever I felt like going. One day, I rode along Provincial Highway 9, with the silhouettes of mountains following me through the East Rift Valley. Another day, I turned onto Provincial Highway 11 and the view suddenly opened up, the Pacific Ocean shimmering almost too brightly on my right. September still felt very much like summer under the sun, but the wind already carried a hint of the northeast monsoon arriving a little too early. I simply kept riding into it, letting my arms and face slowly take on the color of summer. By the time I returned to where I was staying, my skin smelled of salt and sweat, yet my mind somehow felt completely clear.
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After living in Taipei for a long time, it is easy to divide each day into little boxes. What time to leave, when to reply to messages, how much work needs to get done—even while eating a meal, I often find myself already thinking about whatever comes next. In Taitung, all those boxes suddenly loosened. The village was small enough that after walking around for a while, I would run into people I had already seen earlier that day. Dogs lay in the shade by the roadside, neighbors sat outside chatting, and the afternoon light slowly moved across the eaves as though no one were in any particular hurry to push it forward. At first, the feeling was almost unfamiliar. I kept wondering whether I ought to be “doing something.” It was only around the third or fourth day that I realized taking a walk was already something. Sitting somewhere and feeling the breeze was something too. Even an afternoon in which nothing had been accomplished could still be a complete part of a day.
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Researchers who study travel and psychological restoration have found that one reason traveling can leave us feeling recharged is that it temporarily removes us from environments that constantly demand our focused attention. Work messages, traffic, and endless to-do lists are always competing for our attention in everyday life. By the mountains or the sea, however, our eyes are naturally drawn toward clouds, shadows moving through the trees, waves, or distant mountains without requiring much effort at all. This gentler form of attention gives the mind a little room to recover. Perhaps that is why I did nothing particularly extraordinary during my days in Taitung, yet slept deeply every night. When I grew tired from cycling, I stopped. When I came across the ocean, I stayed a little longer. I often forgot to check my phone altogether. Life did not suddenly give me any answers. The voices that had been crowded together inside my head simply, finally, moved a little farther apart.
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Slow living probably does not mean deliberately doing everything at a slower pace. People in Taitung still have to work. At the fishing harbors, people are already awake before sunrise, and farm work does not stop simply because visitors have come to relax. What stayed with me was something else: life does not have to prove its productivity every minute of the day. Riding along Provincial Highway 9, I passed rice fields, orchards, villages, and mountain ranges one after another. On Highway 11, the sea breeze filled my shirt like a sail, while an occasional little shop, church, or cluster of houses appeared by the roadside. Much of the time, there was no “attraction” to speak of, yet those empty stretches became some of the most beautiful parts of the trip. We do not have to keep arriving somewhere to know that we are moving forward. Sometimes it is enough to simply keep riding and see what the day brings.
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Now that I am back, the work is still here, of course. My alarm is ringing again, and life cannot remain in Taitung forever. But I like the little bit of looseness I managed to bring home with me. Things can be done one at a time. Meals can be properly enjoyed. When I am tired, I can rest. And when there is an empty space in the day, I do not have to rush to fill it. If life has been feeling a little too tightly packed lately, perhaps it really is worth finding a few days to wander through Hualien and Taitung. There is no need to fill the itinerary or photograph every stop. Follow Highway 9 and look at the mountains, turn onto Highway 11 and feel the ocean breeze, sleep until your body wakes on its own, and only then decide where you would like to go that day. Slow days, unhurried living. Every once in a while, surrendering yourself to time that has not been planned reminds you that simply living comfortably is already something very much worth doing.
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