I'm currently reading "Bluebird: Women & the New Psychology of Happiness". It's a very interesting book and it's one of those that I sit and read with a highlighter in my hand ready to run a bright yellow spotlight over every sentence that stands out to me.
I was reading this afternoon (as my sick husband watches some Sylvester Stalone movie) and came across this passage. I love it so much....
"When Utah Phillips launched his radio program, Loafers Glory: Hobo Jungle of the Mind, I was a busy girl It was the 1990s, and I was as ambitious as a morning glory, wary of the do-nothing slackers in my life. But I was drawn to Phillip's sow, drawn to the concept of a loafer's glory, drawn to Gertrude Stein's words as well: "It takes a lot of loafing to write a book." Here were two of the most productive geniuses of the twentieth century- Gertrude Stein and Utah Phillips- slackers by nobody's standards, and they both championed the art and discipline of loafing, of idling the time away.
As I wrote books and raised my daughter through seasons harsh & bountiful, I began to understand that both endeavors did somehow take a heap of loafing, but I learned, too, that loafing is different from slacking. Loafing is an active, growing kind of time-out. Loafing knows nothing about stagnation. A loafer doesn't get stoned and watch TV every afternoon- that's what happens when we deny ourselves fair time to loaf until burnout and exhaustion take over and we collapse onto the couch. A loafer paints her toenails and waits for the polish to dry, steps out into the world, and wanders here and there, in nature or through bookstores, looking for nothing in particular."
Here's to all of a us doing a little more loafing. (I think I already do my fair share) :)
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