Sit and Be

So there's a great book I've been reading recently called "An Optimist's Tour of the Future".  I highly recommend giving it a read.  It's funny, interesting, and it really does give one hope for the world we could have, despite the news reports failing to deliver in that same regard.  In essence it kind of encapsulates many of the finer points of happiness.  Furthermore, it probably played a  respectable role in my starting of this blog.

Anyway, I digress from my real point.  In the book the author recalls a story of a tour boat captain in New Zealand, Tim, who takes a German couple out for a dolphin spotting excursion.  After a few hours of fruitless searching, despite the German man's insistence that they find the elusive creatures, Tim drops anchor in a most tranquil and picturesque little spot.  The captain asks the man, "Do you want to continue looking?  Or would you rather just sit and be?"

Tim recounts, "The funniest thing happened, he looked at me as if I'd suggested the most radical thing ever. 'Sit and be!  he said.  'Sit and be!'--as if it was the first time the idea had ever occurred to him.  He called to his wife.  'Write this down!' he told her.  'Sit and be!' 'Do you want to keep looking for dolphins?' I asked, and he said, 'No!  I want to sit and be!' so that's what we did."

It's pretty clear to me that a lot more of us need to realize that that's an option.  Give yourself some time to plop down and just use your brain...or not use it...or kind of both simultaneously.  You might be thinking that you usually do that anyway, but I think we both know that that isn't what I mean.

Set aside some time each week to erase the constant droning of life from your ears.  Grab a book, or some jazz, a cup of tea...just sit and be.

You don't have to necessarily be sitting, the other day I raced a bus up Queen Anne Ave.  I was on a run, and I had just started up the hill when a bus passed me by and subsequently stopped.  I pushed on past it, and then it started up again.  It was struggling with the hill as well, so I decided to try to keep pace with it.  Passing me again, I pressed on harder and was able to catch up on it's stops.  When we finally reached the top of the hill, we had more or less tied (a little less), but you can be sure that any concerns I had had were fully squeezed out of my mind.

I guess the point is have fun with the world.  Play, think, do nothing!  John Cleese did a really great lecture about being creative, and I think it really can apply to finding a happy state as well.

So again, this week's lesson: go somewhere pleasant...sit...and be.