A Post a Day in May 2019 #8: Nothing doing
I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May.
The scene: two people passing each other in the hallway —
Person One: “Hey, how’s it going?”
Person Two: “Busy. Really busy.”
Person One: “Yeah, me too.”
Person Two: “Gotta go. So much to do.”
Person One: “Right, me too. See ya’.”
I hear this exchange in the hallways at work quite often and, I must say, the one-up-manship disguised as banality is breathtaking. Being busy is, apparently, the new status, and I have no ambition for it. I’ll be active, engaged, productive, interested, committed — any of those, I’ll happily be. But busy as a status? No thanks.
I think that people are afraid, these days, to have nothing to do, to have a calendar without appointments, to have time without something filling it. A friend once told me that she was learning to be “with herself” rather than “by herself” when in her own company, alone. And I really like that notion: that I can be my own best company, at times, and that, at times, I might, in that company, choose to be not at all busy but, instead, to be quiet, maybe. Possibly contemplative. Maybe daydreaming. Or maybe doing nothing at all — not mentally, not physically. Simply being, doing nothing.
Because in this mad-cap 21st century world, doing nothing — slowly and with intention — might just be the most radical status of all.
Thanks for reading.
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Doing nothing -- brain rest? Yes. I suspect that is something best done once retired. Then the work place pressure, which was always there, is absent. Before I stopped working, I worried about the past week/month/year and about tomorrow, what was to come. It was difficult to be. I wish I'd had your thoughts on this before. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI have read and am now reading the work of Eckart Tolle (Power of Now and New Earth) respectively. Tolle addresses this very topic.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few weeks I have made a point of taking my beloved little Phoebe Gonzales (long-haired chihuahua) for an afternoon walk along the River's Trail. At first I considered it a form of exercise for both of us. One day I noticed a bench and asked myself, what would happen if I just sat down for a few minutes?
I sat and those minutes became thirty then sixty and now each day I sit on that bench and allow myself to simply be. I am in no hurry to get-to-the-next-thing. And neither is Phoebe. She is happy to just be and to be with me.
Thank you for today's thoughts.
ahahar
Spot on post.
ReplyDeleteI just wrapped up a big project at work that I had been working on for month. The reduced intensity in my days and the openness of my schedule (at least for now) has been an uneasy adjustment. I continually wonder if I am forgetting something or will be viewed as idle, even though I have many little tasks to do that have been ignored for months. Being busy is overrated - I was certainly not as engaged with my work as I could have been, had I been allowed more time to stop, review and reflect on my work.
In response to this work pace I have made a point to make time for myself to 'be' - walk the dog, listen to a podcast, crochet... activities where I can let my mind wander and relax. It helps me to recharge.