Well, I started out this New Year sidelined with an injury *le sigh*... one that prevents me from working on my Art or doing much around the house except read... and has been painful enough to cause me to slow down, rest... and take a more quiet, reflective pace and cancel some engagements. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing... I tend to have the habit of living life at warp speed and trying to do too much, I live life fully. At this Season of life you'd think I would have paced myself better and not attempt to pack so much into a day, but unless something like this happens, I'm not very good at that. Being still is not one of my strengths... being sidelined with injury or illness is relatively foreign to me and I don't do that well either... so it takes practice to slow down and allow myself time to do... nothing. Doing nothing bothers me, I don't know why, it's not as if I can't wrap my mind around the fact that we do need and should also take time for complete rest and relaxation. But there is usually so much to do or that I want to do, that I keep my focus on what I could or should be doing... rather than taking time out... and so, when I'm forced into inactivity, I protest and resist... and don't initially see it as a Blessing in disguise. Slowing my thoughts down is even more difficult than physically slowing down... and so I have to engage my mind even when the body gives out for a time... thankfully I have a vast Library of Books to enjoy as I recuperate and heal. And take my mind off this physical limitation... which I have to confess is troubling me since it involves my right arm and hand... I work with my hands... and I'm very independent and ambitious... this has been recurrent and could be age related... and keeps cropping up at the most inopportune times... and I hate it. I love working on my Art... and in my Garden or Home... being active... going places... and doing anything I want or need to do... so it can be rather humbling when I can't. It has however, given me quiet reflections, about life and what I want to accomplish in 2011... and what I could or should set aside and perhaps not do? I am a human being after all and not a human doing... and the Gift of Life is in the being... not necessarily the doing... and that's a lesson I'm learning and accepting... maybe not as well as I should at times, until I'm forced to slow down and contemplate it... like now. May 2011 be a year we appreciate the "being" and not be so busy in the doing that we fail to just "be" at times... Dawn... The Bohemian
"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Gandhi
"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow." Douglas Pagels