Sometimes, Rest is Called For

Backyard Compost Heaps, Resting

Yesterday I chose to rest. After the stress of my travel and discussions during the trip, as well as other work related stress, I decided that it would do my soul good to just rest. I walked Penny on one of the shorter 15 minute routes and other than making a trip to buy a bag of donkey food for Herbie, spent the rest of the day watching movies and documentaries. That doesn't give much to write about and from a mindful vs. mindless aspect, it was certainly a mindless type of day.

Today we drove out to the ranch and watered the orchard and garden, fed and brushed Herbie, and spent a good bit of time with shears and loppers busting brush. We named our land, "Die Manchmal Gruene Weide", which means, "The Sometimes Green Pasture". However, we could have just as easily named our land, "Die Dornig Weide", which means, "The Thorny Pasture" because the woods are overrun with climbing brambles. We have cleared out a lot of nice paths through the woods, but there are still years worth of bramble clearing work to do there.

I wish to go back to discuss the mindless day. The effort required to always maintain a level of mindfulness seems to me to be a potential source of stress.  If the definition of mindful living requires attention to every thought in every task at all times, then that definition becomes an unreachable goal, just as Jesus' re-definition of adultery from the physical act to simply having lustful thoughts of another means it is impossible for normal people to attain a life free of adultery. In the latter case the point is being made that holiness is impossible to achieve of our own accord due to the fallibility of our human nature and our holiness only comes by the grace of God.

In the situation of mindful living, I do not believe we humans, by our very nature, can perpetually maintain mindfulness. Therefore, my answer and approach to mindfulness is treat it as something I try to achieve when and where I can that, at that moment, could result in a betterment of the situation I am in at that moment. I can apply this at work while tackling a difficult task, or when bowling, to achieve better scores, or during my workout and eating to hopefully achieve better health and fitness. I find though, at least for me, that it is far easier to accomplish these and other events of life in a mindless way and I must deliberately and with conscious effort be mindful. In fact, I just forget to be mindful most of the time. Would that I possessed a tiny mental alarm that pinged me when I drift through a task mindlessly.