To wander now is my abode;
To rest, — to rest would be
A privilege of hurricane
To memory and me.-Emily Dickinson
A few years back I wrote a guest blog for an Aussie based site called Little Wren. The blog was titled ‘The Sweet Art of Doing Nothing’.
It was written at a time when the concept of doing nothing was imposed on me due to current circumstances, rather than an active choice. Although I tried to take this in my stride and embrace the gaps of nothing that seemed to swallow up my days, I was relieved when I transitioned into a different and busier phase of life.
I had all but forgotten this until more recently when I came across the Italian phrase la dolce far niente, quite literally ‘the sweetness of doing nothing’. Discovering the phrase took me back to this article (which serendipitously I had given a somewhat similar title, although the Italian saying was unknown to me at the time). It’s given me pause to reflect on those lazy Summer days when I had just arrived in Australia, at the time so discouraging, but in hindsight set with a warm, nostalgic glow.
Now I find I miss the opportunities doing nothing granted me. The sweet repose of sitting in the sun, people…
