Sit and do nothing — better.
You don’t know how hard this is for me. To do nothing! Forget about the better part. The word “better” implies you’ve been able to do “nothing” some time in the past. Or that you can do nothing “better” than someone else.
To “Do Nothing” means to restrain yourself. Refrain from acting or reacting. To sit and let nothing be your guide.
I try. And I’m a miserable failure. Anything but that, I say to my Self. Let me walk on hot coals, lie on a bed of nails, endure the Chinese water torture drill night after night. But sit and do nothing? It’s nerve-wracking. Uncomfortable. Unnatural. For me, at least.
But, that’s exactly what’s been missing in my life. The message has been smacking me up side my head more and more these days. If I only took the time to listen. To stop “doing” long enough to let it sink in. Let Life just be without a klutz like me believing my intervention’s needed. Or what I say or do could possibly improve the path of another sentient being who’s being guided by a Higher Force.
Do no thing. Take no action. Let the thing be. Be with the thing without a desire to rescue, help or believe the most compassionate “thing” you could do is take action to perhaps guide or encourage it. Whatever the “it” is. There are times when doing nothing is not just the best thing to do, it’s the only one that the Fates require, that a Higher Force wants done in that moment. To do no harm, perhaps. To allow silence and non-intervention work in an emptiness offering sanctuary, a fortress of solitude, a quiet that another desperately needs.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Permit something to do nothing: enrich its growth
And so, I will try more to do less. Reserve my energy. Do nothing until or unless some emergency cries out for the marines to land on some distant shore. Let a situation enfold without any prodding. And for a friendly person to find a solution within. Without my outside help.
I’ll leave you alone, now. To sit and do nothing. And try to do it better than I have ever done before. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss the feeling of getting my two-cents worth in, cracking a joke, relieving my own insecurities by pretending to care only for another’s anxieties and fears.
Sit and do nothing better, michael j.
Alone.
For now.
Contoveros 
Michael,
Looking forward to reading your next post… what will be the first thought bubbled up from your alone time… wonder, wonder…
Diane
LikeLike
Diane,
Got shot down immediately after posting the final writing, and I deleted it some 24 hours later. May have hurt someone’s sensibilities concerning confidentiality. Never intended it. But I guess that comes with writing my way, and so now I’ll stop.
Thought friends wouldn’t mind being mentioned attending a picnic I organized. But I guess they weren’t really friends to begin with — only acquaintances who may have been afraid of revealing and opening themselves to the likes of me. Can’t really blame ’em. Hell, I’d never want to belong to a group that would have me as a member, anyway.
Should have stopped while I was ahead.
But, I gave it a good run. Four hundred and sixty-two posts in 12 months. More than one a day. Tried to be open and honest. Now, it’s time to move on and lick wounds from living a little too boldly.
Bye!
LikeLike
What if…Michael J….there are some of us who will not let you go. Oh, you can fly off and cover yourself up later if you want, but the connection is still there. Way I see it, Diane’s got your left wing covered and I’ve got the right. We know about wounds.
But we also know that the shot from one rifle doesn’t have to kill us or you.
We’ve got you covered and you’ll fly when the your heart is healed. That’s where the sniper got you, you know. Snipers like to deliver the kill, don’t they? Well, this one did not get you. You are still here.
Diane, from my point of view, that left wing has an owie in it – right near the tip. Get ready, I’m going to throw you some Aloe Vera ’cause it’s probably a burn from the heat.
Let’s lay him gently on God’s lap. He’ll sleep better that way and God sings great lullabys. Michael J., tell God your fav and it will be done.
God said you are not to get down until you are healed. Diana and I will be here with the Love ointment.
XO
LikeLike
Yes, Michael, “I have your back!” (one of my favorite LOST quotes!) Samskaras… soul wounds… lifetime after lifetime it will show up until the original injury (either physical or emotional) is understood… then it will loosen its grip and dissipate! Hold my hand today please as I face my own Samskara! Diane
LikeLike
Holding hands with you can become dangerous. What would the spouse say? Love me. Love you. Love everyone, anyway.
Amazing how much hurt one can take before calling it quits. And just a little Love can call him back into the game. Thanks, Diane.
michael j
LikeLike
Got shot, but did not die, Amy. Your love showed me a new horizon. I can see clearer and feel energized now.
Healed. But, stilll a little sore. Well enough to get out of the sick bed. Thanks from the Kabbalah point in my heart . . .
michael j
LikeLike
please, please, please do not stop posting, Mcihael. I know I don’t comment much but this is one of the blog places I feel SAFE. Because you are honest and open and real. You don’t tell people how to live; you write about how you try.
a lot of people love you. I have never met you, but I feel nothing but a smile when I see your name popping up in my commetns box, or when I come here to read.
xx
Viv
LikeLike
SAFE!
Not that’s a heluva thing to say to a guy who’s been trying for months to pick you up from across the Atlantic. “Feel safe.”
I want you to feel dazzled, swept off your feet and dizzy from the anticipation of a hug from me that will never let you go, Viv. Or your crazy hat!
michael j
LikeLike
yeah, but i know you’d never HURT me. And that means a lot, hat or no hat.
xx
Viv
LikeLike
Michael J., there’s a little prezzie waiting for you in my last blog. Hope you’ll drop by and pick it up.
LikeLike
Amy, you don’t know how much this means to me.
To go out with a “bang.”
michael j
LikeLike
In the silence of “not doing,” we begin to know what we feel.
From one recovering attorney to another, Namaste!
LikeLike
Doing “nought” accomplishes a lot, my fellow counselor. It can pave the way for feeling “better.” And help you determine what to feel better about. Thank you NRHatch.
michael j
LikeLike
Michael,
I see that most of your readers are giving you this alone time… but I can not help but to let you know…
Thank you for this lesson. We often define outselves by other people’s comments. Your post has slowly seeped into a place of clarity for me and I am practicing the concept. Let all people “be”. Let yourself “be”. I am having a dinner party this evening… I often come away from a night like this feeling uncomfortable with myself. Did I say the wrong thing? Do they approve of my path? WHAT are they really thinking? Hmmmmm… it will be interesting to sit back and observe tonight. It ultimately does not matter what they think or what I think they think. It is MY journey… ALONE.
Hope you are well!
Diane
LikeLike
Diane, I really related to your comment about the dinner party. I teach, and my students get the chance at the end of their stay to comment and “grade” us and every time, I dread it, in case I get negative feedback or they say they hated me and my teaching.
In the end, I do my best and that is all I can do. I keep in touch with many of my students later, so I guess I am doing something right, somewhere. Not that it matters, ultimately, but I’d prefer to know I am doing my job well.
xx
LikeLike
I don’t see you doing much if anything wrong when you give your all to the endeavor. I see your students taking a lot of you with them as they go into the world, and they will have you to thank for that extra spark of Life you instilled in each and everyone of ’em.
michael j
LikeLike
I hope you were able to “do less” and not feel obligated to do and do and do. Sounds to me, however, that you’d end up doing the right thing, no matter what the choice.
michael j
LikeLike
Doing nothing is good but I need to give myself permission to do it.
and often, I won’t.
xx
LikeLike
You can sleep in during your writing time or simply vegetate or watch the telly. Get bored real quick and realize how good you got it by not doing Nothing.
LikeLike
Nothing is hard Michael…
LikeLike
Too hard for the likes of me.
LikeLike
What? I’m not God’s 2IC? Okay, I’ll let the world take responsibility for itself, let it suffer its own consequences and experience its own empowerment.
Wow, it’s going to be an incredibly beautiful world any day now.
Now, I wonder what day I can stay off the computer…
LikeLike
I went two days without the computer. Felt like two years with so many good ideas to write about, but I just let them seep through me. If they re-appear, so be it. If not, well, the collective sub-conscious can always pick it up on another channel . . .
michael j
LikeLike
Oh my. This too has long been my problem. I am a master at multi-tasking and my brain is on over drive, so much so, that my brain actually hurts.
Since moving to Southern Colorado, I have been forced to slow down, and I have discovered the world still goes on without my intervention or 2 cents or having to DO SOMETHING or,,,,,,
Whew! There is much to write about this topic, but I gottagoand,,,,,,,oooopppss, slow down.
LikeLike
I needed time to sort things out. Found out that writing was one of the things I could not do without, and so I plan to sit and seek inspiration again. Not sure what to write about, but that hasn’t stopped me before!
michael j
LikeLike
I really hear you today… If you don’t mind I will join you… in your alone time… I’ll be quiet! Diane
LikeLike
Close your eyes. Open your heart. Let Light fill your vessel until it bursts. Then bestow it on someone less fortunate than ourselves who have not shared in this miraculous moment of “Nothing.”
LikeLike