A moment to gather

Have you ever tried to do something but at every attempt it seems like the whole universe is against you doing that very thing you are intent on doing?  That's the very thing that is happening with this next blog post.  I am contemplating how to write about living stress free- and do it with wit and intelligence. What I have to say about this topic seems so important that when you get done reading I expect to hear your "Ah-ha" moment in my living room. Yet as I try to write all that is whirling around in my head I come up blank.  Never a good sign for writing.

So as I sit idly looking at the computer screen I realize what the Universe is trying to tell me is to LIVE IT. Stressing out about getting this blog post out "on time"-which by the way is an arbitrary deadline I set for myself - is certainly not practicing what I preach.  And practicing what I preach is the most important work I can do.  So I am letting go of  my arbitrary deadline for this next post.  I am reading books, gardening, and filling my free-time with idleness. It's wonderful.  You should try it sometime.  Just doing nothing.  Being idle just because. If you can allow yourself to go there, without guilt, or shame, or a to-do list, doing nothing is out of this world!

Even as I search for quotes to back me up on this one I was quite disappointed. It seems Idleness has been frowned upon for generations.  Ok I get that, back in the day when survival was hard work, idleness was considered weak and threatening to the survival of a whole family.  But what about today?  What it takes to survive in this world has taken a major shift.  Food, clothing and shelter are relatively easy to come by.  Now whether you have realized it or not, our survival is mainly dependent on our own life-style choices. The way it's looking most everyone is racing to their early graves.  Not because of starvation or exposure, but from totally preventable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and yes I dare say cancer.  And what is at the root of all these diseases is stress. And why do we have so much stress????........ Because we have eliminated idleness, quite, stillness, calmness- all of those things that eliminate stress.

Woah -this post is writing itself.  I have science to back me up on this one. Originally that's what I wanted to write about but this is what I ended up with.  So until the next post in which I hope to present you with the science of this stress free living stuff... think about this?  Can you just do nothing and be content?  And if your answer is no, why not?