Right on! Idleness is as important to mental health as sleep. Would you want music to always be at full throttle? Music is best when it has spaces and lulls, fast parts and slow parts, loud parts and soft parts. Likewise, life. How can you appreciate life if you never stop and reflect on it?
I so agree with this. My own ongoing relationship with death has brought me to the conclusion that it's important to try to maintain a balance between the "big" things you'd want to have done before you die and the "small" things that make every day a bit more joyful. Quotation marks because I don't think those words capture the actual bigness or smallness of the feelings themselves.
I'm lucky enough to have come very close to death a few times, and yet to have survived, and each time I have been shown what I would regret. Sometimes it's what I would have expected, sometimes it isn't. But the times when I've been most satisfied with my pre-death feelings have been when I've been doing as much of what I wanted to do as possible within realistic parameters.
What an astonishingly accomplished visual artist you must be. It is rare to achieve outstanding things in both the visual and the literary arts, but you appear able to manage this.
I think there might be an interesting connection here to Kieran Setiya's stuff about atelic activity; not so much wasting time as spending time on activities that aren't goal-directed. http://www.ksetiya.net/uploads/2/4/5/2/24528408/midlife.pdf
Hubby and I are in relatively good health, but decided last year to take the plunge and make a fresh start near the sea and try to semi-retire. Life never quite goes to plan, but I am trying to slow down as best I can and enjoy each day more. I have been doing more crafting again, which has been fun, and we have a bigger garden now. Work will stop play soon, but the last 4 months were pretty special. And my bath time treat has been the joy of reading a bit more of your book on Wonder! I studied a bit of Philosophy of Science in my youth and just love your take on the old Masters and their combination of faith, reason, logic and muses. Thank you :)
Right on! Idleness is as important to mental health as sleep. Would you want music to always be at full throttle? Music is best when it has spaces and lulls, fast parts and slow parts, loud parts and soft parts. Likewise, life. How can you appreciate life if you never stop and reflect on it?
I so agree with this. My own ongoing relationship with death has brought me to the conclusion that it's important to try to maintain a balance between the "big" things you'd want to have done before you die and the "small" things that make every day a bit more joyful. Quotation marks because I don't think those words capture the actual bigness or smallness of the feelings themselves.
I'm lucky enough to have come very close to death a few times, and yet to have survived, and each time I have been shown what I would regret. Sometimes it's what I would have expected, sometimes it isn't. But the times when I've been most satisfied with my pre-death feelings have been when I've been doing as much of what I wanted to do as possible within realistic parameters.
Thank you, as always, for your writing <3
There is wisdom here.
Poignant.
That’s beautiful, Helen.
What an astonishingly accomplished visual artist you must be. It is rare to achieve outstanding things in both the visual and the literary arts, but you appear able to manage this.
I think there might be an interesting connection here to Kieran Setiya's stuff about atelic activity; not so much wasting time as spending time on activities that aren't goal-directed. http://www.ksetiya.net/uploads/2/4/5/2/24528408/midlife.pdf
Hubby and I are in relatively good health, but decided last year to take the plunge and make a fresh start near the sea and try to semi-retire. Life never quite goes to plan, but I am trying to slow down as best I can and enjoy each day more. I have been doing more crafting again, which has been fun, and we have a bigger garden now. Work will stop play soon, but the last 4 months were pretty special. And my bath time treat has been the joy of reading a bit more of your book on Wonder! I studied a bit of Philosophy of Science in my youth and just love your take on the old Masters and their combination of faith, reason, logic and muses. Thank you :)