((So I didn’t check off everything on my finishing list yesterday. But because of the things I did do… I walked into the living room this morning, and felt like I could finally breathe in there. Thanks to my newly freed space.))
Be in action… is not necessarily how it sounds. I don’t plan to be a hyper productive, task oriented ball of constantly moving energy today.
I’m reading this book by Osho called “Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within” (Insights for a New Way of Living). I love this way of looking at creativity, because it’s not talking about just creativity in making art… but in living life. In the first chapter, he makes a distinction between action and activity. It rings so true for me and I know I’ve written about something similar before here.
He says that activity is compulsive. Has almost a mindless, thoughtless quality to it. Where you move from task to task, event to event, activity to activity without premeditation. This includes productive things, this includes “relaxing” things. For instance; going from putting the baby down for a nap, to warming up soup, to eating & writing simultaneously, to watching a show, to making tea… one right after the other, sometimes multiple things at one time. Not really giving each activity your full attention because you’re thinking of what’s going to come next. As if remaining in activity is more important than the activity itself.
But in action, action arises out of a need. You are hungry, so you eat. Your body aches, so you stretch. You notice that the plants need watering, so you grab the hose. You feel the urge to draw… so you do. Action has a spontaneity and a thoughtfulness to it, rather than a compulsiveness. So that’s my intention today. To remain in action. It’s only 8:30am… and it’s already causing me a little anxiety to be stripped of activity for the sake of activity. Interesting, huh?
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