IDLE POWER

PRACTICE: Consider two words, idleness and stampede.

Confession, I have yet to read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick entirely. I love a line in it that refers to the harpooner who hasn’t contributed to the chase of the great white whale, “To ensure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.” Neither have I read works of an Austrian theologian, Baron Von Hugel, who wrote, “Nothing was ever accomplished in a stampede.”

Who hasn’t seen an old western where something causes a herd of cattle to stampede or read a story of an incident where shots were fired or someone yelled “fire,” resulting in people being crushed and or suffocated? Contrast that memory to what you can conjure up in your imagination about the harpooner in Moby Dick. I am a testament to both – the stampede is usually occurring prior to the idleness.

During the last two weeks of July walking pneumonia bought my life to a screeching halt. I had planned an exciting two weeks, which included the celebration of two very important birthdays. I was busy pouring my mind and heart into the details and driving my body physically with an uptick in exercise. There was only one problem it seemed, the mind, heart and body talk to each other and do not operate independently. I, like most of you, think that I am a great multitasker but, I can only be in one place and do one thing at a time. At some point my body was invaded by a bacterium that yelled “fire” and a “stampede” started.

Obviously, I didn’t hear the first cry that was issued on Friday, or I ignored the warning of two naps in one day and a low-grade fever the next day and more naps. It was the chills on Sunday that knocked me off my feet.

I was rescued from my rubble and taken to the urgent care on Sunday and eventually to the emergency room on Monday for a diagnosis. The process of healing included lots of rest which I equated to idleness. I was wrong.

Two weeks of mandatory and husband enforced idleness reminded me that listening and leaning into my inner voice is one of the gifts that I must use to fight off the stampedes. Whereas the quote, “an idle brain is the devil’s workshop,” may have some truth in it, I am more inclined to believe an idle brain is a workshop for rebooting, rejuvenating and being resurrected.

Isaiah 30:15

PONDER THIS THOUGHT--- Read again Herman Melville’s quote.