Laziness November 29th

Now I am not prone to laziness although I have nothing against it either. I feel the same way about laziness one might feel about toast and jam; it is fine to eat but nothing to get excited or discouraged about or as Cost Rican's might say "Maso Menos", loosely translated to "so so". It is fine to be lazy if one is tired, sick, unmotivated, worked hard all week and deserves a rest or just for the sake of doing nothing. Some might argue that point as I have close family-friends who feel they are useless if they are not doing something "productive" every single moment. My husband being one of those creatures. He says he is inherently lazy and fights the urge to nap. Ha!. I have never known him to be a slouch or rest on his laurels. In fact, is always working either physically, mentally, on the computer, bouncing ideas off me the Muse, sitting with a note pad in hand or waving his hands in the air and staring into the ether's slightly rambling silent words of mind talk like I would think of Einstein at times of genius....it is a strange friend with whom he talks. It drives him every minute of every day. The drive to be productive stems from financial struggles of past and often present. When you own your own business and you are the only employee it all falls heavy on the shoulders of one. It is a weight to bear and he carries it well. That is until his back gives out or his head-sinuses explode from all the weight he is carrying and the heavy thinking. I gave him two full days off, forced by me, accepted(partially) by him. I have to force him to stop. "But there is so much to do before I go to Tennessee" he says...or wherever the next project may be. In this case Tenn. I hear these words and I wonder to myself "how can he keep it all going on just a few hours of sleep per night?". Which brings me to laziness. Somehow deep in the recesses of our minds we remember our parents telling us that "Idle hands are the devils workshop" and other sayings which never made much sense. I think the guilt was carried over from our WWII surviving parents and/or grandparents who lived through the great depression, and I am not talking about the last administration or the current state of affairs.......but those who truly waited in bread lines for hours to feed a family of ten. They instilled a work ethic with which I agree whole hardheartedly until it causes illness and stress.

I learned the hard way. The body needs rest. There is a fine balance of rest, fun and work. Then there is time for which no title can be given and that is the time we spend with our loved ones, pets, nature or ourselves in a quiet setting, away from noise, work, computers, I-Pods, cell phones, Wi's,blackberry's, radio, TV and all that modern high tech gadgetry which demands most of our attention. What is ironic is that if used properly it could free one to spend more time being lazy or quite. This is our modern dilemma: The fine balance between tech toys, work, play and rest.The tech stuff if used correctly can allow for more of the RR time we so lack in our society. It can offer a chance to eat a meal together with out standing in the kitchen shoveling junk food in our face as a replacement for dinner.That is one thing we DO ensure: we always eat meals sitting together at the dining table, even of there is a note pad present. (I too keep one close by 24 hours a day).

During surgery healing I spend most of my time reclined with book, TV, phone, writing or napping. I know my body wants to heal and if I do not head it's calling I will risk way too much(a hip for starters). I find it easy to lounge with my hot pad. The voices in my head occasionally tell me I should be doing this or that but then I get up on my walker and wonder about a few minutes only to realize I just need to be still, take a siesta or three, read another chapter of "Lacuna", write on my blog and stir the soup I made from scratch after making turkey salad with leftovers, washed the dishes, put leftovers in a container for Dadio's dinner tomorrow night, made breakfast and cleaned out the fridge. Wow those two hours flew by. I can justify my laziness. I hope my true love can learn to justify his once in a blue moon. Oh.......I have a cold too. "bless me". Time to go relax. "Manana"