Bored

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This past week the weather has been very wet, where I live. Lot’s of rain and wind have made sure that nature is thriving as well as renewing itself in some places where old trees have fallen to make room for new plants and trees; for future generations…

The beauty of this seems to be totally lost on my cats.

One day of rain is okay; after all, one can use that time very comfortably to catch up on some ‘lost sleep’ while the weather was still warm and dry. But after a couple of days and nights of wet weather, boredom sets in. Suddenly the litter-box is more appealing than the idea of getting wet feet. And there is only so much sleep to catch up on…

For us people it seems to be the perfect weather to sit down with a mug of hot chocolate and a book. Time to hang back, to do nothing. Yet in our modern society we are not geared to spend time doing nothing. Pretty soon for us too, boredom sets in. We may feel restless, wanting to do something, yet resisting going outside as that would have a high probability of getting drenched…

And where my cats eventually will find other mischief to get involved in, for us the restless feeling; the not knowing what is next can be quite uncomfortable.

In a sense this does have to do with how we value things we do and enjoy in life.
In our fast paced, high energy lives we tend to value activity a lot more than we value rest. Of course we may sleep in on our day off; yet once ‘up and running’ we feel we need to do exactly that: be up and running. Sometimes in the most literal sense possible as we are jogging our way through town in a bid to stay in shape.

It looks like we have forgotten how important the moments of ‘doing nothing’ are for us. Those moments when we just sit back, relax, and watch the world go by…
These times are important as it is in these moments that we ~ whether we are conscious of it or not ~ reflect and evaluate where we are at in life. If we would like to change directions, or feel better just to keep going in our chosen direction.

From that perspective, the continuing rainy weather is a time of reflection and integration. When we find ourselves feeling bored and uncomfortable because we cannot (or don’t feel to) engage in our normal activities, it might help us to label the reflection and integration as an ‘activity’, make ourselves a mug of hot chocolate, and just sit back for a while…
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