A setting sun indicates the end of day. Or the beginning of a new chapter. Why does everything have to be in these two shifts? These two shifts signal work and play or work and rest if you travel three hours a day, everyday. But the rest is only as good as the tiredness of the day. There are times when you don’t deserve the rest, which means you are not tired enough. At least not tired by the same things.
There is so much wonder in the world that getting tired by the wrong things seems criminal. There is a need for silence but the silence after a tiring day is more than welcome. When the exhaustion is felt in your bone and sinew, and you let your beleaguered soul soak in the beautiful embrace of rest. When there is silence all around and the traffic horns have ceased to blare, and the only sound in the room is of that of your chattering mind, rest feels welcome, and well deserved.
But being tired is not about rest solely. It is also about spending your time fruitfully and frugally. Investing your energy in the right spaces. Your energy is finite and your fuel reserves are limited. But they can be renewed. They can be replenished. It’s like when you play a sport, you feel tired but you also feel good and that sets into the motion the process of fuel renewal. And next day you are ready to go at it again.
You need to find activities which both tire you and also replenish your reserves. It is truly the most fascinating thing for me. To be able to find these activities. These activities for me have been the ones where I have been in absolute flow. Birding, walking, reading, solving complex problems at work and also writing. Does day dreaming count? I hope not. Some of these activities are physically draining but also refreshing, you may even say rejuvenating. But you can’t keep living off of those. Some times you have to choose activities which don’t bring any meaningful impact to your energy. So you have to offset them with something else like a nice carbon credits program. What a clever way to keep polluting the planet.
A pleasant train ride back home, an unhurried pace to the train station and of course standing atop a footover bridge and just looking at the setting sun – these can also help to offset the energy uptake.
Sometimes they are enough, sometimes you need more. A life full of struggle is welcome but a life full of balance also wouldn’t be as bad. The Chinese have a term for this energy, the life force – Qi or Chi. Wikipedia says it plays a vital role in our lives and permeates everything around us, that is why managing it can help alleviate pain and suffering resulting from the imbalance.
I am not sure how much of a believer I am in the idea of Qi but I am certain that those people and activities which renew the life force within us. To be engaged with them in some way or the other is definitely beneficial. Just need to have more coffee with them.
