Sweet Boredom

This week I picked up some new calendar pages for my Franklin Covey planner. Last night I started filling them in. I began with school activities, practices, games, and concerts. Then I added my appointments, work schedule and so on. Can’t forget the Birthdays and Anniversaries. Mom and Dad’s was yesterday. Happy Anniversary, guys!

It’s kind of fun watching my calendar fill up. I like having things to do. But still. I need to be careful. I don’t want to make my life so busy that I don’t have time to be bored every now and then.

You remember boredom. It’s that thing most of us middle-aged or older people experienced nearly every summer. It came to us when the chores were done (or it was too hot to work) and the day wore on. No one owned a computer, and TV’s were for evenings and Saturday mornings only. So what’s a kid to do, but sit outside and watch the world go by.

I still remember lying out on the lawn, looking up at the clouds. I hardly noticed the cats rubbing up beside me, the birds flying across the sky, the sound of the screen door slamming as someone went in or out of the house. I just laid there and let my thoughts wander where they would. Mom called it daydreaming. I called it being bored, but I was careful not to voice it. Proclaiming you were bored was a sure fire way to be given extra chores. So I just laid there and did nothing. Nothing but think and watch the clouds go by.

Fast forward to 2010. Most everyone I meet has a planner that looks like mine, filled with important appointments, meetings, and work. I mean we have to work! How can we support a lifestyle as busy and “full” as this if we don’t make a little money? But here’s the irony of it all. Even though our planners look full, it seems as though life has thinned out. I know it doesn’t make sense. I mean a busier life should be a fuller life, right? But somehow it doesn’t work like that. The more we try to squeeze in to every week, the more we lose. We’re all so afraid of missing out on what life has to offer, that we’ve filled our lives to overflowing, and all the most important things are slipping away. Things like perspective, contentment, and imagination.

So I’ve tried to leave a few gaping holes here and there on my calendar. Hopefully, a few of those will stay empty and I’ll have time to enjoy that precious commodity, sweet boredom.