The Untapped Power of Peacefulness

The Necessary Momentary Freedom from Authority

So glad it's Christmas break. One of the best things about my work as a guitar instructor during the winter months is that two week break over Christmas.

It's great to finally have some time to slow down and ponder some of life's great mysteries, or even just write about pondering life's great mysteries.

I believe one of the great curses of our modern lifestyle is the unrelenting busy-ness that seeks to rule our lives. We get up early and hit the ground running to get to work on time, then we rush home for supper. After that we rush the kids off to their pre-planned activities, come home for an hour or so and then rush out to pick them up.

Full disclosure here: we don't do much of that at our house. My wife recently mentioned to me that she felt like we might be failing our kids by not having them in all these different activities. My emphatic reply was, “Absolutely NOT!”

After a day in class being told what to do, and then a couple hours of rushing around the house in order to quickly eat and then get ready for whatever comes next, only to be shipped off to another place where someone in authority orders their life, it's a wonder kids ever learn how to think for themselves. And judging by the herd/mob mentality online these days, maybe they never do.

There's a reason I love mornings when everyone else is in bed and I am actually able to hear myself think. There's something that’s born in the silence, in the peacefulness and quiet where possibilities have not yet been quashed by reality. I love to read and to sort through my thoughts when there's nothing else demanding my attention. It's these times that help me to get to know myself a little better, to understand why I think the way I do and why I believe what I believe. It's these times where that weird idea I had last week has the opportunity to return with new perspective and sometimes gets a little more flesh on its bones. I realize this kind of introspection may not be for everyone, but I’ve come to suspect that one of the reasons for this may have something to do with fear - I mean, you never know what you're going to find when you look a little closer under the hood. Not too big a deal if you're willing to fix a few things, but sometimes you just have to learn to be okay with the way things are.

When I was a kid in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we spent every day outside after school. We explored the neighborhood, we organized baseball games, we played make-believe in the small amount of bush that was close to our house in our town, we built ramps and jumped our bikes, we tried things that didn't work - over and over again.

I remember once my brother and I “discovered” a previously unknown puddle in that bush area that had frogs, polywogs, cool bugs, and other weird, nameless creatures inhabiting it. We were sure that these unknown entities were some tiny leftover remnants of a prehistoric species of freshwater death crab. Or something.

We developed a way of catching bumblebees by waiting for them to approach a flower and then bopping them on the head with the lid from a peanut butter jar. Then we'd just sweep the stunned creatures into the jar and slam the lid on. In a minute they'd wake up and be good as new. At least as far as we could tell…

My point in all of this is not to out myself as some rehabilitated sadistic bumblebee-napper but merely to stress how important it is to have time to play. There's been much written on the value of creative play, so fear not, I'm not going to attempt to elaborate on that. What I will say though, is that this is when ideas are born, failures are realized, problems are solved, and (in the immortal words of Walt Disney), we keep moving forward.

Without these occasional moments of freedom from authority (whatever that is in your life), we can't dream, we can't plan, we can't exit the rat race. At the very least, without some time for reflection, we won't even be able to figure out how to accept our place in the rat race with a healthy perspective.

Time off is not just a luxury, it's a necessity - even if it's just an hour to chill without the constant media barrage in the morning, or before bed. And it’s very likely that our kids need this even more than we do. Maybe that ought to somehow find its way onto the schedule as well.

If you're lucky enough to have time off this holiday season, don't just pack it full of more activities if you can help it. Find some quiet time to chill, even if it's just reading something. Then think about what you just read. You don't need an idyllic spot by a babbling brook - your favourite chair would be perfect. A cup of tea or coffee, or a glass of wine might help. Or hot chocolate. Get comfortable, explore ideas and get to know and understand yourself. Who knows - you might actually like what you find.