It seems like most of my life I have been told don’t just sit there, do something. As a result, I have become the just do it girl. I was the just do it girl long before Nike ever coined that slogan. So it was interesting this morning that I received yet another confirmation that I need to reverse the lesson I was taught as a child. As Sylvia Bookstein said, “Don’t just do something. Sit there.” I have been getting this message that I need to be intentional about taking time each day to just sit, do nothing, and spend time with myself.
So this is my new behavior to work on making a part of my life – doing nothing. I am sure Zoe is going to laugh when I tell her I am going to work on doing nothing for at least 10 minutes a day. Doing nothing and just sitting here does not mean I sit and play a computer game or I sit and talk with her. Doing nothing and sitting here means I spend that time with myself, having those conversations with myself and the Ultimate that I somehow think I can avoid, when I know that I really cannot avoid myself or the Ultimate.
For a moment, I tried to say well I could count my qigong time as my sit there and do nothing time, but doing qigong is something. Working on my gratitude journal, inspiration journal, intention journal, are all doing something. But maybe what this quote is telling me is to not just fall into automatic routine mode, but also sit and wait for the prompt to do something and not just do it because it needs to get done.
Maybe what this quote is reminding me is to not block other people’s blessings. If I am constantly doing something just because it needs to get done, instead of sitting and seeking direction as to whether or not I am the one, then I am blocking somebody else’s blessing. I am denying them the opportunity to be of service and I am becoming a service hog; something I do not want to be.
I have gotten good about sitting and thinking before speaking. However, maybe this is also reminding me to sit and ask if this is something I am supposed to address or just acknowledge and surrender to prayer. A friend of mine and I were discussing the story from John 5 about the man at Bethseda that Jesus healed. There were thousands of people there in need of healing. Jesus healed the one he was supposed to and moved on. I have to be intentional about not always just doing something, but sitting and seeking before doing.
It’s like my own letters to you and me. I am not just writing. I sit with it for a moment and then the inspiration about what I need to reflect on comes. Sometimes it seems strange and comes from unexpected sources, like Sam’s recent trip to Wegman’s or the compost pile falling on top of me while I was trying to help with the garden (lol). Sometimes like when the compost fell on top of me, I could not do anything. So I sat there, sought guidance, and then quietly asked for help. It was not my time to just do it. It was my time to sit there and allow someone else to help me.
Maybe that is another lesson for me to learn from this. I don’t always have to be the one who does things for me. Sometimes I need to allow others to give to me and to allow them to experience the blessing of giving and allow myself to experience the blessing of receiving. So today, I am not going to just do something. Today I am going to be intentional about sitting here.