“…As I grow older, I think that resting might actually be the main point of life. To sit down passively, inside or outside, and merely absorb things – the tick of a clock, a cloud passing by, the distant hum of traffic, a bird singing – can feel like an end in itself. It can actually feel and be more meaningful than a lot of the stuff we are conditioned to see as productive. Just as we need pauses between notes for music to sound good, and just as we need punctuation in a sentence for it to be coherent, we should see rest and reflection and passivity – and even sitting on a sofa – as an intrinsic and essential part of life that is needed for the whole to make sense.”
I don’t know how old author Matt Haig was when he penned the above, but as I grow older I find myself not only agreeing with the premise that resting is “intrinsic and essential” for a meaningful life, but identifying with its practical wisdom; I can feel the truth of the need to rest – I don’t just know it, I KNOW it!
That rest can be a form of doing is countercultural in the western world, for conventional thinking posits that productivity and self-worth go hand-in-hand and that, therefore, resting is equivalent to laziness. When we are at the top of our game physically and otherwise, when we are intent on climbing the proverbial ladder or relentlessly attaining our goals, rest is not often recognized as important, let alone essential. Perhaps it is the inevitable slowing that accompanies aging or the wisdom that can be the fruit of both success and failure, but in either case, or both, we hopefully grow to recognize and embrace the notion that resting and doing are not antithetical.
Author, priest, and psychologist Anthony DeMello claims that there is the noble art of getting things done, and the noble art of leaving things undone. We may not be considered productive if we allow ourselves to sit on the sofa, but we may discover that leaving things undone “can feel like an end in itself,” and lead to a more meaningful life.
As I compose this reflection, I’m aware that resting is a luxury not available to those who struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis, a reality not only for people in developing countries, but for many in the First World as well – this is a travesty we ought to do what we can to alleviate. But the misfortune of others notwithstanding, we who can literally afford to rest our bodies and minds have a responsibility to do so, for to neglect our own well being can result not only in physical, mental, and emotional weariness, but in a spiritual scarcity that benefits no one.
Attuned to Soul 