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Dalton
Roberts |
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The phrase “gorgeously idle for a while” from something written by Esther Nichols Smith has come to mind many times over the years when I was in need of it. It pops in my mind when I am running fast on empty. Idleness gets a bad rap. There is an intentional idleness that rejuvenates body, mind and soul. When your schedule puts a thumb in your back and pushes you too fast and too hard, it is time to be gorgeously idle. Sometimes our body seems to jump out of us and scream “Freeze!” At other times it may be our pummeled mind. It can be a miracle-working healer when we have the good sense to listen to it. The Quakers taught me a lot about slowing down. One day when I was in the hospital, I awoke from a doze to find a handsome elderly gentleman sitting by my bed in silent prayer. Realizing I was awake, he said, “I am Alfred Thatcher. As I walked down the hall, something moved me to come in your room and pray for you. I hope it is alright.” I assured him it was and we had a refreshing fellowship during which he told me he attended the local Friends meeting. At that time the Friends were meeting at Pilgrim Congregational Church so one Sunday I decided to go. After a time of friendly conversation, they filed into a room and sat in a circle. Everyone became quiet and as I looked around, I could see some were praying. Some, like me, were just looking around. After five or ten minutes of silence, I became uneasy. There’s something in us that is uneasy with silence. Philosopher Vernon Howard said it was our fear of looking inside our own minds. Nevertheless, I saw the program was silence and I decided to try to get with it. I got quiet and started peacefully poking around in my own inner being. It was one of the best experiences of my life. It taught me the power of quietness. It was a lesson so well learned that I still do it anytime I get restless and over-stressed. It’s the best way I have found to be “gorgeously idle for a while.” My doctor finds gorgeous idleness in puttering with one of his cars. He has what he calls “K Mart Days” where he dons his coveralls, goes to the auto section and buys something for his car. He takes his own sweet time, relishing every moment of his completely non-routine day. One of the best days of my life was a day I played hookey from school. It was a perfect day – the kind we have here in Tennessee in September. I had seen a stand of pine trees near a fishing hole I frequented on Chickamauga Creek. I was wearing a thin jacket and I rolled it up into a pillow. For hours I stretched out and watched the clouds roll by. A cool breeze soothed me all day. I was going through a period of hating school and I believe it was the refreshment and introspection of that day that enabled me to return to school and graduate. With doctors and restless teenage boys, it is the same: we all cry out for times of gorgeous idleness. Sometimes a short period of intensely gorgeous quiet can do the job. I remember one day when I walked out on the courthouse lawn to get away from the pressure for a few minutes. I stood by the bird fountain and watched a robin drink and bathe. I was almost close enough to touch him but he showed no alarm. I think he realized he was there to freeze me into gorgeous idleness long enough to restore my inner power. At times like that, I realize Shakespeare was right when he said, “Silence is the perfectest herald of joy.”
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