It's medicine for the soul.
Stop, close your eyes and take 30 seconds to listen. Try it :)
Relaxing, eh? Thought disrupting, yeah? I love this. I don't know about you, but my throughts are like a radio, constantly on and way louder than necessary. It's really nice to turn it down and listen to the real world once in a while.
Here's an audio clip I made several months ago, when I was on a walk in the neighborhood. You can hear windchimes, some distant cars, my footsteps, and the wind. It was a "listening walk", which I try to take as often as I can.
Now I live in a new neighborhood. My door is decorated for Fall with a wreath I made from strangely expensive Michaels craft materials. If I tried to sell this wreath based on materials cost, no one would buy it. It’s nothing special, and not worth what I paid to make it myself. But I LIKE this about the wreath. I like having to invest in an experience. Just like investing in listening means you have to stop everything else and essentially waste time.
That wasted time is like a portal to truth. I’m trying to go there more and more these days, though I recall accessing it a lot more in high school, even in college. My life jar is filled with responsibilities, worries, obligations, but also accomplishments, friends, things I care a lot about. So, I must be strategic with wasting valuable time!
Here’s my strategy:
Everyday I have an affair with wasted time. I’ll take a break from work and go for a secret listening walk, or I’ll clear off my desk and draw in my sketch book for 20 minutes. I pretend like no one needs me, and I can do anything with my wasted time. I can make love to my wasted time by drawing and singing, or I can seek refuge by listening. It’s magical. After 20 minutes, I go back to my work wife and resume tasks.
Here’s one of my recent affairs:
It’s not fancy. It’s a quick sketch. Kinda boring to look at, but accessing that portal taught me something. I drew those cards for a reason. Wasted Time showed me that I have a staircase to my creativity, and balance and discernment will give me time and space to get there. Thanks for the message, Wasted Time!
Really, WT just wants to spend more time with me.
Now, I’m not into affairs IRL. In fact, any movies that glorify them gross me out, but I will ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS cheat on my work wife. I guess I’m more of a player than I thought.
-Annie