It’s been a week.
And I say that from my own, personal, experience which doesn’t include the wider world and everything that’s going on out there.
I’ve been staying away from that and, I’d wager, it was a good decision.
Still, there’s been pressure to produce, even though, at the end of the day, I’ve got nothing left. Some days were better than others this week (per usual), but this weekend was going to be all about getting some rest.
But the lawn needed to be mowed, etc. You know how it goes. And it almost got away from me.
I’m going to side-track myself for a minute: Some of you may have spotted my crossroads picture yesterday. That was just shy of the halfway point of a six mile and some change walk. Now this may sound counter intuitive, but that walk was part of the rest and relaxation part of the weekend.
R&R isn’t restricted to just the physical, and getting out there, in the middle of all that nowhere, does wonders for my head and my spirit, even while it taxes the body in a good way.
Back to the point, which is that we’re all conditioned to see down time, non-productive time as something to avoid. And it’s not a recent development. If you look back at the history of Lazy, you’ll find it linked to words like Feeble and Weak. Those two words also have their own cultural baggage filled with negative connotations.
Why should that Lazy person (ever) do nothing while the rest of us (always) have to do the work?
But here’s the thing: We’re not machines. Even if we were, you can’t run a machine – without maintenance – constantly. It’ll fail.
Taking the conscious decision to STOP and REST is critical to our continued well being. And I’m not just talking physically. You need to rest, recharge, and renew those mental and spiritual batteries just as much as the body – perhaps even moreso.
It’s a shift in thinking that, I think, needs to take place for all of us. And it’ll take some time. Even as I type this, with the plan to do very little for the rest of the day, I can already feel the mental resistance, the aversion to “Wasting” a day.
But healing is never a waste.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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