I love getting readers’ comments on my blog. Now I know that some of you “out there”in cyberspace are reading it! Thanks for taking the time to respond. A while back a long-time friend wrote to me concerning one of my posts on guilt. She mentioned that she thought that I had written that post just for her!! She then related another situation that threw the “guilt bomb” her way. ” Her situation I totally understood and I’m pretty sure many of you can too. If I remember correctly, she had just finished a project around the house and sat down for a well earned rest. While she was relaxing she heard the garage door open indicating that her husband had arrived home. Instantaneously, without thinking, she jumped up went to the kitchen pretending to be “busy”! I had to laugh thinking the number of times I did that very thing. Maybe that instinctive behavior came from the role model of my mother who I never saw sitting down to read a book, magazine, or newspaper. She was too busy raising five children to indulge herself in the frivolous activity of “doing nothing’. Or maybe I took to heart the nun’s admonishment that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. Whatever the source, the feeling that we always have to be busy, to be doing something, anything, to be productive is up for discussion. This thinking can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle and could even be destructive. We could “lose” ourselves in a myriad of activities procrastinating needed reflection and attention. If we are focused on “doing” rather than “being”; when we need to beg God in “prayer” rather than listen to Spirit in “meditation”; and when our deep down inward “faith” turns into outward hollow “practices” we are the losers. We lose the opportunity to get in touch with our God-self that speaks in whispers so softly that we have to pay close attention to the vibrations. So the next time you are inclined to jump up and “busy yourself”, sit down, take a deep breath, and enjoy the silent moment of “doing nothing” – just “be” the wonderful person that you have been created to be!
