THE IDLER

Nikaela Marie Peters writes in ‘The Idler: How to Do Nothing,’
“The habit of doing nothing at all is super-important to our individual and cultural well-being, yet it seems to be dying in our digitized age. Far from laziness, proper idleness is the soul’s home base. Before we plan or love or decide or act or story tell, we are idle. Before we learn, we watch. Before we do, we dream. Before we play, we imagine. The idle mind is awake but unconstrained, free to slip untethered from idea to idea or meander from potential theory to potential truth. Thomas Aquinas argued that “it is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.”

I believe the most needed and neglected of all activities is quiet, solitary contemplation. Peters ends with this comment, “Plus, the changing shapes of clouds need our attention.” Indeed they do.

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Now when evening came, he was alone there. Jesus