Brain Food #813: A day off
When the voodoos of ambition sleep
Thoughts of the day
A short (and rare) Sunday post, to share a poem I recently came across that could only be shared on a Sunday; a few lines showing how much can still happen on a day off, when we let ‘the voodoos of ambition sleep.’
While we are idle, dormant thoughts have room to develop, ideas are slept on and allowed to brew, and much more progress can still be made, even if we have stepped off the hamster wheel (or treadmill) of modern life.
When we lose our leisure, as Virginia Woolf advised, we risk losing ourselves.
The world, of course, goes on, without us, largely indifferent. But isn’t that a comforting thought, that once you return, everything might just be where you left it.
Today
by Mary Oliver
Today I’m flying low
and I’m not saying a word
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move, though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
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