I work from home and I like quiet there because I like to think. After all, it’s pretty much what being the Napkin Dad is all about. When my wife stays home from work, or my daughter is home from school, they often will have a TV show on during the day that they like. I have to focus that out to focus in on other things. That can be hard to do. I don’t mind it because it isn’t frequent and I think it’s perfectly fine for them to enjoy their down time watching ‘The Price is Right’. but if they aren’t home I don’t have the TV on, or music for that matter (most of the time). I have a hard enough time focusing without those distractions.
How can you become self-aware if you are always surrounded by others’ clamor. You need to face your own clamor of silence, your own thoughts, feelings, meanings, desires, failures, and confusions. You can’t do that if you don’t allow yourself quiet. Not emptiness, since you are surely not empty when you are quiet, you are just with yourself and have to face yourself.
It’s not that you have to be with yourself all the time, always evaluating, always wondering. Often I think there is a sowing and harvesting aspect to self-
Allow yourself time to be alone with yourself. It might be scary but it’s how you will grow.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily Quote by Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941, Bangladeshi poet and writer
>We are the descendants of lazy, tree-hang'n, nose-pick'n apes and that's why we're smart!
I read somewhere that psychologists have found that time spent doing mindless chores (e.g., chopping wood/polishing the stainless/walking dog) is much more relaxing and ultimately productive than sitting and watching TV. This is because your mind is given time to ponder and reflect on what's been happening.