Slow Spotlight: Kasannah Greely of Kindly Grown Designs
So many people have inspired me on my own journey towards living a slower, simpler and more seasonal life, and I’d love you to be inspired too. The Slow Spotlights series shares with you some of their journeys, and I hope that by reading about these, you too may be inspired and encouraged.
A huge thank you to Kasannah Greely for sharing more about her own journey towards a slower and simpler life below.
I’m the owner of Kindly Grown Designs, a wedding floral and garden design studio in the Midwestern United States. My floral studio specialises in garden-style designs created by gardeners, using locally-grown materials. I’m a wife, a mother, and a gardener, all of which inspire my creative work. On Substack, I write about how cultivating my own garden and floral business has led to a life of more creativity, contentment, and community.
When did you first become aware that you craved a slower and simpler approach to life?
I didn’t know it was happening at the time, but looking back it is abundantly clear that motherhood was a turning point for me. Motherhood suddenly made everything more complicated and more simple all at once. On one hand, I was forced to slow down. I had a tiny human to take care of now, one that made a fast-paced life more difficult to manage. Also, I was suddenly a different person with a new identity: a mother. I needed time to get to know this new version of myself. The draw to simplicity wasn’t just because I had no other options, though. I began to want it.
Suddenly, the farm that I grew up on, the animals, the land and the garden, became magical again, to me and for my daughter. They were no longer just a part of my origin story, I wanted to write them into my daughter’s origin story as well. I wanted to have time to watch a sunset with her, time to hear myself think and feel what motherhood was making me into. But also, I wanted to know who I was outside of motherhood. Becoming a mother caused me to see so many dichotomies. To reconcile them, I needed quiet and I needed time.
How do you embrace slow, simple and seasonal living within your business?
It does seem like an odd turn of events in this story of embracing a slower lifestyle to say that I decided to start a business. Ultimately, that is one powerful thing that came from a year of reflection and new motherhood. The decision to become an entrepreneur was not contrary to cultivating a more simple approach to life. There were, and still are, busy moments, and nobody can prepare you for how hard it is, but my floristry business also forces me to live seasonally.
In floristry, the art I make is ephemeral. I work with materials that are only available during certain times of the year, and they don’t last once I create arrangements with them. The beauty is all temporary. Being a wedding florist enables me to be inspired and fueled by reflection and fleeting beauty. They are my greatest tools. I love asking brides to reflect upon their unique love story, so I can better create personal floral pieces for their wedding days. I have to know the seasons and their botanical elements intimately to create with the most beautiful floral elements available at the time I need them. There are naturally busy seasons in the wedding industry and natural seasons of rest, because the industry follows seasonality and weather patterns so closely.
How do you think the past can help us live with more awareness in the present?
I wholeheartedly believe in the power of reflection. I think taking time to discern the past, to really know the things that have happened to you and how they have shaped you, makes you better suited for making wise decisions going forward. I’ve always been reflective and drawn to practices like journaling and photographing seemingly mundane parts of my days. When I first became a mother, though, the practice suddenly became vital to my mental health, self image, and ability to make decisions.
I have vivid memories of journaling when my then infant daughter napped. I was a young mom who didn’t really know herself well before having children, so getting to know who I was as a mother and outside of motherhood all at once was a very difficult but necessary exercise. Journaling, and specifically reflective practices of journaling, were very helpful as I worked to see through the fog of a new identity and to decide who I would be going forward, as a mother and as an individual.
What does living slowly, simply and seasonally mean to you?
Compared to others, my life may not look like a stereotypical ‘slow life.’ I have school drop-offs daily, I juggle work with young kids, my daughter plays a sport. I am a working mom, but I try to be an intentional one. I think living simply and seasonally, for me, comes down to that one word: intentional. I will not always get it right, but I will keep trying. I am constantly taking inventory of my life and making sure there is margin to notice things, that I’m not adding things to the calendar thoughtlessly, that I have enough space to do the things that actually fulfil me and my family.
Being a gardener has added so much seasonality into my life - mentally, physically and emotionally. It has made me enjoy each season as it comes and experience what it has to offer at the present moment. Soon, it will be gone. The season will always come again and the hope for it can remain. Gardening has taught me to eat seasonally. It’s taught me to mimic the pace of our life with the seasons, that there are seasons of rest and seasons of hurry.
Are there elements of living in this way that challenge you?
Being a part of the wedding industry really challenges simple and seasonal living. There is so much potential to use floristry as a way to live seasonally, but also so many ways to reject that. Even though flowers are a seasonal product, our technological society makes it so flowers can be ordered from anywhere at any time. I have chosen to source all of the products I use in my floral designs from farms and growers no more than two hours away from my studio. Sometimes I even use botanical elements from my own garden. Seasonality and local flowers have added so much more to my creative work and to the weddings of my clients than imported flowers could ever compete with.
However, it is more challenging to travel to farms to pick up my product the week of a wedding, to piece together the exact types of florals I need for each event, when I could just order with the click of a button. It’s harder to source all local products, but it’s very worth it.
What is one piece of advice you would give to others looking to embrace a slower, simpler and more seasonal approach to life.
I would tell them to look to nature. There is a blueprint for simple and seasonal living right outside our windows. Take time to be in nature or tend nature, undistracted, for even just a few minutes a day. You’ll be surprised at what you begin to feel and notice. It also doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are ways to slow down your days, even just for a little bit. Just start asking yourself, '“How could I do this more quietly?” “How could I be more intentional and present?”
A couple of weeks ago, I asked my grandmother for her pickle recipe. When she gave it to me, I realised the recipe had steps to complete for thirteen days. The title of the recipe is ‘13 Day Pickles.’ I had no idea they took that long. She then asked me if I wanted her to walk me through the process. I was a little worried about committing, but I said yes. Having an experience with my grandmother, even if it meant driving the kids to her house for the next thirteen days, was worth every bit of time it took. It slowed me down and as a result, my kids and I received precious memories and a new skill.
