Thursday, April 02, 2015

Contemplating The Universe

Sometimes I just sit and think.  Other times I just sit.

When was the last time you sat in a solitary place, quieted your mind, and simply contemplated the universe?  Yesterday I wrote some thoughts about putting work into proper perspective.  Work and other activities can take up too much of our life and leave us frazzled and stressed.  Times of busyness and activity need to be balanced with quiet and solitary reflection.  You don’t have to be an intellectual to be reflective and introspective.  The Greek philosopher Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”.  Many people find and take time in their lives for retreat.  When many people think of a retreat they think of a battle in a war where you are losing.  In order to live to fight another day, you retreat.  Hopefully most of our daily lives do not feel like we are in a war zone.  The best of lives, however, are filled with challenges and demands that can leave us exhausted and depleted.  It is a rare person who could not occasionally use a time of retreat to recharge, renew, and refresh.  If you are lucky, maybe you can run off to a monastery retreat house for a weekend.  If that is difficult, take an afternoon off and go to the park.  At the very least, take some time and sit in silence in your own backyard.  Sometimes the best I can do is retreat inside my own mind.  However, sometimes that is a noisy place with all the inner chatter that strives to run my life.  One way or another, look for opportunities to simply be.  I am confident you will not regret this time or consider it wasteful.   
 

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