When I was working, it was rare when I would do nothing. Perhaps on a Sunday? Well, for the many years that I taught Sunday school, I had to be at Church early. So “doing nothing” was usually not an option on a Sunday. Frankly, doing nothing, seemed like a waste of a day. Especially, when many weeks I worked Monday through Saturday. So I didn’t have the luxury of doing “nothing” when I only had one day off that week.
Think about this. Have you had the following happen to you? When someone calls and asks you, “what are you doing?” And our natural response is “nothing.” Really? I imagine you were watching TV, reading, answering work emails, scrolling through social media, playing with your cat or dog, cleaning house, doing the dishes. You were doing something, right?
“Ummm, nothing. I’m just being.”
If you’ve been following my blog, you must know that I like to define things. So much so that I regularly look up a word in a dictionary or Wikipedia. So I’ve done that here. When you look up “doing nothing”, it’s defined as: a lazy or worthless person. As an adjective, it is “someone characterized by their inability or unwillingness to initiate action, work toward a goal, assume responsibility, or the like” (Collins Dictionary). Wow, huh? Sounds so negative.
For purposes of this Blog called “NOTHING”, I wish to express my definition of doing nothing. Which is not negative at all. Sometimes we need a day or an hour of doing nothing. To recharge, to refresh, to think, to contemplate, to plan. Now, my doing nothing is not to be confused with being a do-nothing. In English (USA), there is something called a “do nothing.” It’s not a verb, but rather a noun. A “do nothing” is defined as: a person who is idle or lacks ambition (Oxford Languages). Needless to say, it’s not a positive description of someone. So, that is not my focus today.
Now that I’m retired, I find that I have many days of doing nothing. If you’ve kept up with my Blog, you also know that I do “something” every day. Maybe only an hour of water aerobics every morning and then nothing the rest of the day. Or teaching English to kids at a local shelter and then relaxing in front of the TV in the evening. I enjoy that. I honestly do. I find that we all have a personal definition of doing nothing.
nothing all day.”
I don’t mind “doing nothing” either all day or an afternoon. Sometimes, that “doing nothing” is simply that I don’t leave the house. But it doesn’t mean that I did absolutely nothing. Perhaps I did a load or two of laundry. Wrote an entire article for this Blog. Sunbathed by my pool for a couple of hours, reading a good book. Maybe it’s watching 3, 4, 5 or more episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. My point is, we each define our doing nothing. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
So enjoy your “doing nothing” time. But, don’t think of yourself as a “do-nothing.” Onward…
5 responses
My “do nothing” begins at 4pm when i start watching the evening news, followed by Jeopardy.
Beginning next month (September) I’ll add Survivor.
I do need to follow your example & ride gym in the morning.
Wishing you continued lovely afternoons at the pool.
Yes, amiga. We all have our “doing nothing” time and well deserved I should say.
I hear you took my advice and are lounging at the pool as I’m typing.
Yes laying by the pool… Doing nothing!!! 😛
Fun post!