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Today's
Meditation:
We
who inhabit the world today have become a part of the
culture of doing. We have somehow bought into the
notion that we always must be accomplishing something, we
always must be on the go. We have over-committed
ourselves and we find it very hard to say no to anyone who
asks anything from us. We have relegated rest and
relaxation to the status of "luxury" rather
than keeping it at the status of "necessity,"
which is where it should be.
For
most of the people I know, I would love to see them make a
simple New Year's resolution: to relax more and to
commit themselves less. If they were able to do so,
they would find their quality of life significantly
improved, and they would find their stress levels
significantly lower.
Every
once in a while, I find myself so caught up in doing
things that I start to imagine that that's what life is
all about, that that's what I somehow need to be
doing. I don't have time for walks in the woods
or for sitting quietly reading a good book--heaven
forbid that I waste two perfectly good hours just sitting
there, reading! I get a restless feeling, an urge to
get up and DO something. I find it to be a very nice
feeling when I can say to myself, "Forget it.
You don't need to be doing anything right now, and sitting
here quietly, reading a book, is time very well
spent." Some moments must be allowed to slip
by, quietly and peacefully, not filled with activity.
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