Do Nothing
Dream On | One Life
Hey You,
Hope you have been well.
Well, for the past 12 days, I was in the city I was born in.
Reflecting on life thinking about death.
Indulging in my version of being and nothingness
Disappearing from socials, yet again.
I realized even in my quiet moments I sometimes have a voice telling me I should be doing otherwise.
Telling me my to-do list further lengthening it.
And to that voice, I honestly sometimes want to say, fuck you.
I am going to do as I please.
And if that looks like doing nothing then so be it.
Before I visited Bombay.
I had planned for it to be a “working- time off.”
As I write to you, my visit has ended and it looked nothing like I had planned.
I did nothing and I bloody loved it.
Nothingness for me ensued from evening walks with my Nanu (Maternal Grandfather)
To afternoon card sessions with my Maa (Paternal grandmother) and Pecimaa
(My Fathers sister)
To Solo swims, evening drinks with fam, early dinners, and reading for leisure.
I say this to say in this race for more it’s easy to lose track of what truly counts
and to quote Confucious.
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
Before you diss the “doing nothing” act allow me to tell you why
Doing nothing is not only powerful but hard.
It is that peace of mind that looks like peace “from” mind.
It requires embracing doing nothing without the guilt, I should do something.
It calls for consciousness to say okay, I am going to
binge-watching Suits, and I refuse to judge myself over it.
It calls for completely accepting your inactivity, laziness, or passivity at this moment,
if that is your choice.
To Go into it fully, To Enjoy it.
To Be as lazy or inactive as you can.
If you go into it fully and consciously, you will soon come out of it.
Or maybe you won’t.
Either way, there will be no inner conflict, no resistance, no negativity.
As I am back to base, I feel my desire for inaction and inactivity fade away, naturally.
Without me having to scold myself to get back into “working”
I feel like Action wants to creep back in and I feel myself enjoying that thought.
But that voice in the background is back, telling me how it is going to be hard and all the negative things that add to the fear of chasing a dream.
And to that voice, I again say fuck you.
I am not listening to you but to the whisper of my heart.
And I say this to you to say, Dream, On!
And to quote The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse:
“Most of the old moles I know wish they had listened less to their fears and more to their dreams.”
