Summer Evening
I am feeling decidedly not like doing too much at the moment. Its been a busy week with thinking about moving but the main ingredient for my doing very little is the fact that the sun is shining, every day now for a week and I am basking in it.
Many of us have been taught to believe that we are valued for what we do, not just for who we are. ‘Doing’ is important, but to keep life in balance, we also need time to just ‘be.’
Henry David Thoreau expressed this so well in Walden Pond:
"There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand.
"Sometimes, on a summer morning, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time.
"I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been."
Ahhhhh the summer evenings, to be enjoyed because when autumn heralds winter and colder weather, we need the memories of summer to carry us through.
My head seldom stands still though...I am working on a few more articles to do with 80% reduction.
2 comments:
Hi Anne, I am very jelous of you, having sun for a whole week, flash or what.
I am trying to forget Summer as it hasn't really happened and I am glad we went to France.
I like the bit about doing nothing, since getting back from holiday, i have been covering shifts and doing loads of 12hrs. I now have 6 days off and i want to do nothing but you just know it not going to happen.
Cheers Mark
Hi Mark,
The summer has been...well awfully awful really so when the sun shone, I just had to go out there and soak it up...we might not see it again for a while.
Some time ago, I would not have dreamt of sitting down not doing anything and then spent 6 months flat on the bed. I hated most of that time but learnt that there can be a real sense of peace and stillness when you do nothing. I know, its a novel concept with email, facebook and blackberries.....but switch the things off for a while and listen out for silence. It does exist and is very refreshing. Maybe you get that when you stare down your camera lens waiting for the insects to come on the flowers.
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