There was a day recently that was gorgeous. I gathered my laptop, my glasses, and all necessary things and planted myself in my favorite chair on the back porch. My goal was to write my weekly blog post. Immediately, I became distracted. I decided to check my work email and it turned into a project because they had migrated everything to a new system. It took some time to get everything synced up and for my calendar to populate on my phone, etc, etc. By the time I figured it out, all brain power was spent. I put my computer on the side table with the intention of just gathering myself long enough that I could start writing.
An unusual thing happened. A minute turned to several minutes, then an hour. Hubby Guy came out and asked what I was doing, so I confessed. I was doing nothing. By then, I had committed myself to it. I ended up doing nothing for three solid hours minus one five minute session of scrolling on my phone, one 15 minute nap and a couple of small conversations with Hubby Guy and my daughter who randomly wandered through at different times.
We forget how wonderful nothing can be, don’t we? We are so inundated with information, task lists, and responsibilities that we forget what it feels like to just stop and breathe. I felt a little guilty. Three hours is a long time to just breathe. Let me tell you, though, it was lovely. I watched the clouds, listened to the birds, and felt the breeze on my skin. I was fully present and keenly aware of how much I miss those things because I just don’t stop near enough for long enough.
Several years ago we went to Alaska. One of the places we visited was Misty Fjords National Monument and Wilderness Area. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We rode there from Ketchikan in a boat. I fought back tears the whole time and felt super goofy for doing so. I could not get past how breathtakingly gorgeous it was. When the captain would cut the motor, it even sounded gorgeous. There was a stillness to it that felt holy. There was no organized entertainment, no task, and no responsibilities to accomplish. The only goal was to relax and take it in. Something about that spoke to a very deep place in me. I am certain I will never forget that day.
While we dream of our next trip to the beach, to Alaska, or some other exotic place, we ignore the beauty that waits for us in our back yards. There is even beauty to behold in cityscapes, if you aren’t fortunate enough to live in a more rural locale. We just don’t schedule time to breathe. We’ve turned rest into a guilty pleasure and wonder why we feel spent all the time. We need to do better for ourselves. Let’s find time to breathe wherever we are. There is beauty to be found everywhere.
I learned this week there is definitely something to nothing. Embracing nothing netted me a good bit of something. I took on lots of peace and rest. Those things can be hard to come by. I took on joy from very common things, like stink bugs racing on the porch screen. Nothing made me almost feel like I had taken a trip. It was well worth the investment.
