How to Be Idle

My brother called the other day. He had heard a story on his local public radio station that made him think of me. It was called "How to Be Idle". I was flattered that he had thought of me, but slightly offended that he thought of me as idle.

In my brother's defense, I had written once upon a time about sitting and drinking coffee and doing nothing but looking out the window, and when he heard the radio program, he was reminded of that post. I wish that happened more often these days. Last year when both children were homeschooled, I did have time each morning before they woke up just to sit and enjoy my coffee. Nowadays, I hastily drink a cup of coffee while running up the hill to the bus stop with Aidan. Not quite the image of idle, is it?

Later the same day my brother had called, I was putting the kids to bed and Avery came out to get a project from the hall closet to take back to bed. She said to me, "Mom, I'm just like you. I can't just do nothing." I was flattered that she thought of me as quite opposite from idle. Industrious, in fact.

I went online and found the radio program about idleness. The story is certainly not about sitting and doing nothing, but rather being in control of your own time and life. Pursuing the things that make you happy, being able to say at the end of the day, "I enjoyed myself today." Waking up and thinking, "I'm looking forward to enjoying myself today." I do believe that my industrious life is quite idle after all. Ideal too, most of the time.

I haven't quite finished listening to the radio program yet. I've been up and down, checking on the chickens, drying dishes, hanging laundry, heating up my coffee, taking pictures of the bees buzzing around the blossoms. If you'd like to listen to the show, here's the link. Thank you Rob!

Tomorrow I'll share a little trick I discovered about making lounge pants, the uniform of the idle.