Musing…
“…There is a great deal to be gained from doing nothing. We need space to brood and ruminate and mull. We need to slow down to get where we’re going.”––Christian McEwen, StarTribune.com “Ideas come to the idle, and we are not”
Kate’s Turn:
Doing nothing, simply being. During the summer, that means lying in a hammock, walking along a beach, sitting in your backyard and gazing at the blossoms and garden produce and clouds. However, I am as guilty as others in feeling rushed, being so busy, having no time to reflect on what I am doing. We all travel at the speed of life.
Yet it is in those unexpected times of apparent idleness that a creative spark has a chance to land in your awareness. Cognitively, your brain works at an amazing speed; emotionally, time is needed to develop qualities like empathy, love, and imagination. Taking the time to make space in order to foster these has merit and value; it provides the space in your brain to receive that spark. And it puts you in the league with other artists who have testified to its virtues as well: Mozart wrote that walking after a meal was the time when his ideas flowed best; Mary Oliver, poet, said that creative work needs solitude; Robert Frost retreated to the country and worked the land.
It doesn’t matter how you go about ‘doing nothing’––it does matter that you support your creative spaces of dreamy delicious imagination.
“Growing is something we do in our own time, not by schedule…Growth comes from removing and removing, ceasing, undoing, and letting ourselves drop down or even fall into the core of our living being…You have to have time, and you have to have quiet.”––Linda Hogan
Get Fired Up:
How can you honor your own ‘doing nothing’ times?
What do you need to let go of in order to protect your idleness and dream time?
