Friday, March 28, 2014

Comments

I appreciate comments.  I get encouragement, new perspectives, and shared stories.  Today's post is a tribute to Jessie's comment:  http://weareone-ruth.blogspot.com/2014/03/im-stuck.html

This is interesting Ruth.

I wonder though, how does one know when they are stuck and when they are just needing a moment to be still? In your nature examples, a tulip may appear stuck as it rests through the winter. It is not moving. But it eventually begins to grown and bloom.

I ask, because I think it's important to be still at times and appreciate where you are at, but not remain stuck and it's something I'm trying to figure out for myself.


Thanks Jessie for giving me an example of a time to hold still.  Tulips are one of my favorite flowers.  Someday I hope to go to Holland and see them in their natural habitat and not in pots at the grocery store.   MyCounselor emailed me and suggested that I am really bad at knowing how to pace myself.  I spent years on a couch unable to be up more than 20 minutes a day.  I studied and worked and learned about things that my medical doctors couldn't tell me.  I then spent a number of years with teenagers in high school, working 2 part time jobs, and taking university classes.  As MyCounselor put it, anything under 100 mph (160 kph) seems a little slow to me.  I thought about this all evening.  I remember being punished for not doing my chores fast enough....it wasn't a matter of not doing them, my mother would set the timer with the expectation that I must go faster and faster and faster.  I was lectured on wasting time and Heaven forbid that I ever say I was bored, she would line up extra chores to make sure I was never bored.  To this day, I am never bored.  Then in my 30's my mind and body fell completely apart.  I couldn't be up more than 20 minutes a day.  Medical doctors tested me, inspected me, and declared there was nothing wrong with me.  That nothing wrong with me really sucked.  I passed out daily.  The idea that sitting quietly doing nothing is for the tulips.  I am thinking about several things that spin off of Jessie's observation. 

1.  Sitting quietly is not a waste of time.  Tulips need to sit quietly before blooming.
2.  Being busy is not a sign of accomplishing anything. 
3.  I never thought about the possibility that I need to better understand and study "quiet." 

Hmmmmm a new topic....
Google found a book on Quiet http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/145930229/quiet-please-unleashing-the-power-of-introverts

Let the research begin. 







2 comments:

jessie said...

These have been interesting posts to read Ruth. Thanks for the thoughts.
I do think there needs to be a balance in it all. I time to rest, reflect, and listen before we charge out into the world again.

Ruth said...

Thanks jessie.