Homebodies - Slow down, breathe deep
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- Published on Saturday, August 27, 2016
By Rita Friesen
Neepawa Banner
How difficult has it become to simply do nothing? How difficult it has become to simply do nothing! It is in the times of quietude that we can hear our own thoughts, feel the power of life flowing through us, contemplate the here and now, and the far aways.
Years ago, when I entered the work force, the employer ‘requested’ that there be no radio playing during work hours. Fortunately, for the most part, the staff worked in companionable semi-silence. Another older individual, a thinker of deep thoughts, wondered if youth of the day needed constant audible input because they were afraid to discover what they were really thinking. I don’t know about that, but I do know that when I needed to learn to live alone, especially go to sleep alone, I had favourite music that helped me not to think deep and dark thoughts – that allowed the desired sleep and rest to come and comfort me. May be some merit in the theory.
Going way back, 20 plus years ago, Ed and I were simply sitting on two ordinary plastic lawn chairs on the concrete slab outside of the front farmhouse door. A neighbour passing by stopped to tell us how nice it looked to see folks just sitting. If everyone who witnessed Ed and I ‘just sitting’ on the south facing veranda on the acreage had stopped to comment, the lane would have been worn away! Is it so uncommon for the common person to simply sit? What is so all-fired important that we have to schedule nothing time? Many, myself included, are fortunate enough to take wonderful holidays, to foreign places and here at home. Sometimes, after coming home from a holiday, I need two days to get rested enough to resume normal life! Vacation perhaps. Time away for certain. But a holiday? Too busy to stop and feel life is too busy!
I recall one multi-generational vacation when the grandkids were eleven and under. We were headed for Drumheller and the dinosaur digs. We struck camp at a rural campground, trees surrounding us and a creek gurgling near by. The children just wanted to play in the sand and the water, trenching and splashing and then retreating to the shade of the camper to play in the sand with tiny trucks and cars. The excursion to the tourist attraction (the destination!) waited. Many of us can recall a celebration where we put time, money and effort into the perfect gift for a young child and all they wanted to play with was the wrapping paper and the empty box.
I respect scheduling down time. Recognizing the need for ‘me time’. Somehow, too many of us have taken natural rest time, walking and tea with a friend, as something we have to make time for. Slow down. Breathe deep. Things can wait, people don’t.
