Henry David Thoreau said, "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify. Simplify." He was born nearly 200 years ago. How he would be balk at the extraneous distractions we are now surrounded by!
It isn't easy to simplify nowadays, is it? We're a consumer society; we have friends and virtual friends around the world; technology allows our work to demand our attention 24/7. When have we time to see the flowers, never mind to stop and smell them? The complicated life is the norm today. But I've opted to let go of the distortion of my time. I've chosen to leave some of the avenues available to me untrod. Quite literally, some of my boxes from the overseas move (read the previous 9 part blog series beginning here ) have been left in storage - unopened and, for the most part, not missed.
Clutter is the enemy of the mind. I'm going to go out on a limb and preach about how clutter- in the area of technology at least - is a risk to our kids.
There are all kinds of stats on child development as regards technology. Too much of it messes with their eyesight, their attention, their fitness. I get all that, and personally, I've chosen to er on the side of caution, in raising my son. Even though he might lag behind his class in technological sophistication, it's a relatively small price to pay, I think, because I'm of the view that too much screen time means too little time for children to get to know themselves.
Playing alone, playing with other children, reading, participating in sports, learning skills including music, all these activities are tools that help a child to grow in their talents. But even more than that, they are means for children to get to know themselves. To learn likes and dislikes from a variety of activities, to meet a range of people and have to find ways to get along with them, these are just a couple of examples where people develop a sense of themselves in the universe. And time for boredom is important too. It's my personal belief that we all need time to just sit with nothing to do. Our world today doesn't seem to allow for much of that.
So, as I simplify my life by aiming to live without a set agenda for each moment of the day, I aim to enable my child to have 'nothing to do' sometimes and plenty of time to reflect and play.
The quiet mind is the peaceful mind. I hope my child will learn to enjoy peace, quiet, rest for his soul, so that he will wake up as an adult knowing who he is, where he wants to go in his life, and he'll have the personal development and self awareness to get himself there.
I've been posting a lot lately. You can catch other new stuff at:
Life from the Lighthouse and http://www.laruspress.com especially a post called: The Internet The Void
Love and God bless to you this week. See you next Thursday... AND:
END NOTE: For those who haven't known me for long, and perhaps for some who have: You might enjoy my other blog:
Life from the Lighthouse -- all about what God shows me when He talks to me and I listen. New posts monthly on the 1st.
My website for the Self Publishing House is www.LarusPress.com where I blog on wholeness, witness, the Word of God and worship & warfare. Larus Press offers Christian-based books, blogs and literature to inspire, encourage, equip and empower your living spirit.
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