But what I like doing best is Nothing.

We can learn so much from Christopher Robin...oh very well, if you insist - A.A.Milne,

by E.H. Shepherd

"How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.

"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going to do Christopher Robin? And you say, Oh, nothing, and you go and do it."

"Oh, I see," said Pooh.

"This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing right now."

"Oh, I see," said Pooh again.

"It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear and not bothering."

"Oh!" said Pooh.

by E.H. Shepherd

 I'm getting better at doing nothing.

Sometimes, in the past, I've APPEARED to be doing nothing when in fact my mind is Very Busy -  planning what to have for dinner, writing a novel, bitching about someone who's slighted me, plotting my revenge, wondering where I've left my car keys, remembering the last episode of Downton Abbey, craving meringues and cream...

It's not very restful.

www.theschooloflife.com

 Now, sometimes, for a few glorious moments, my mind can do nothing.

 Except listen to all the things it can't hear and not bother.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

 Except, I DO get on with my neighbours - every single one of them. They're all completely lovely.

Thanks to Martin Shervington and Lao Tzu, not neighbours and not necessarily in that order, for this admonition:

So...I'm just going to close my eyes and drift away...

See you tomorrow, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

Dolce far niente

and, by way of translation, just in case...

That was the plan, yesterday, at any rate.

Sometimes, my body plays dreadful tricks on me. A trapped nerve in my back (don't ask me how I managed it. I have no idea) which bizarrely migrated around to the front as well, meant that I couldn't sit or lie comfortably in any position. All I could do was walk about. The pain got so bad that the out of hours doctor suspected kidney stones...

In hospital until late last night. Now it's concluded that it's several things coinciding by chance, all completely unrelated. Unrelated except for the fact that they are all in my body at the same time.

So I did nothing, but it was by no means sweet.

 Today I'm hoping for the sweetness!

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

Lao Tzu again.

La Meditacion Zen: Pura Desprogramacio

Yesterday morning was spent doing nothing and I got completely exhausted. When I say doing nothing, it was more spent waiting...endlessly...for two teenage girls to get out of bed. Bless them. That's teenage girls for you and they ARE on holiday.

I'm sure I've said this before but I am not good at doing nothing. I think yesterday I must have been very VERY busy, supposedly doing nothing - fretting and feeling impatient and twiddling my thumbs and wanting to get on. If I'd been working really hard or riding or running or digging the garden or...ANYTHING... I'm convinced I'd have been less tired at the end of it all.

Life, eh? It's a paradox.

Or is it just me?

I was planning to do something today, but I haven't finished doing nothing from yesterday.

Lies, all lies! I was very busy yesterday. I just happen to like the quote.

But, you know how much I love To Do Lists. This is mine for today.

Last week exhausted me, pathetic little weed that I am. When Pete asked what I'd like to do this weekend, I said I'd like to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

It's harder than I thought, this doing nothing lark.

I need practice.

Perhaps I should write a list of all the things I'm not going to do today?