The Importance of Being Idle

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop."  At least, that's what I remember the nuns telling me when I was young.  Consequently, the overtones of guilt that accompanied time spent daydreaming, imagining, or lazing in the sun destroyed the pleasure of those activities.

But as I've grown older, I've put away foolish proverbs.  Today I shamelessly declare that idleness can be the angels' playground, and is as necessary to cultivate creativity as water is to maintain life.  

We have become a society that emphasizes more and more doing. Even children are frequently shuttled from home to school to sports activities to specialized classes with no time to just be. And just being is an essential part of the creative development our society is going to depend on if we're to remain innovators rather than drones.

I've found my best work comes when I'm not looking for it; when I've put my mind in idle and just let what happens happen.  I'll be noodling around on my guitar with no defined purpose, and whump!  A new song lands on my head fully formed without any apparent help from me. I'll snap some pictures of whatever takes my fancy while I'm out and about (the one accompanying this post was taken while exploring the St. John's River with my bandmates), and next thing I know I have an idea for a new blog post.  I'll take a single silly line that pops into my head as I'm falling asleep and play around with it until it weaves itself into the chapter of a book.  No planning, no direction, no overt effort.  The work seems to want to do itself, disguised as play.

So consider this your invitation to be idle, to explore the no-wake zone.  Let's float down that river with the sun on our backs, open to whatever inspiration may come.  Even if it's just for a day . . .