I am sitting here right now, listening to some mellow jazz.
And doing absolutely nothing.
Well, technically, I am thinking about writing this article, so perhaps that counts as doing something. But for a little while, I was simply sitting here, listening to the music and enjoying it.
And you know what?
There is still a little part of me that can feel guilty about that.
I should be doing something.
There is always something that needs to be done. Something I could be creating, finishing, cleaning, organizing, answering, fixing.
We live in a world that seems to worship being busy.
Busy, busy, busy.
Produce. Accomplish. Finish. Move on to the next thing.
And I am certainly not immune to it. When I get excited about something, I can keep going and going because I want to see it finished. Sometimes my body is telling me very clearly, Enough already, while my mind is saying, Yes, but just one more thing…
Sound familiar?
We have somehow learned to associate doing nothing with wasting time.
But what if it isn’t?
What if sitting quietly for a while, listening to music, watching the birds, taking a slow walk, lying down in the middle of the afternoon, or literally stopping to smell the roses is not time wasted at all?
Maybe it is part of coming home to ourselves.
We talk about mind, body and spirit, but I wonder sometimes whether we actually treat all three as equally important.
The mind certainly gets plenty of attention. We use it constantly. We ask it to solve problems, remember things, make decisions, plan for tomorrow, revisit yesterday and figure out what we’re going to have for dinner.
The poor thing rarely shuts up.
Our body needs something different.
It needs us to listen.
Sometimes it needs movement. Sometimes good food. Sometimes fresh air. And sometimes it simply needs to rest without having to justify the rest.
And then there is our spirit.
That quiet, sacred place within us.
I think our spirit needs our attention too. It needs companionship. It needs us to visit often enough that it becomes familiar territory.
Perhaps our spirit needs to become our best friend.
And it is very difficult to hear that quiet voice when we are constantly rushing from one thing to another.
I don’t think coming home to yourself is something you accomplish.
Maybe it happens in those little moments when you stop accomplishing.
When you sit with a cup of tea and don’t reach for your phone.
When you listen to a piece of music and actually listen.
When you walk outside without needing the walk to count toward anything.
When you notice the light coming through the trees.
When you breathe.
When you are simply here.
Now.
Because really, now is all we ever have.
We spend so much time preparing for later.
But the next now is later.
And when later arrives, it will simply be another now.
So perhaps today, I don’t need to earn the right to sit here and listen to my jazz.
Perhaps doing nothing for a little while is exactly what I need to be doing.
And perhaps there are some roses out there waiting for me to notice them.