Wednesday, January 28, 2009


A selection of dyes, dark blue on white cotton.

I'm feeling a bit blue myself

My entire month can be summed up in one word:


Inertia (n)

1. a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged

2. physics- a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force

3. resistance to change in some other physical property


OK, I really have done stuff this month, but it has been a struggle and at the moment I feel worn and tired. This makes it very easy to see the glass as 1/2 empty rather than 1/2 full.


Stupid inertia
at

3 comments:

  1. Wholly JeanneJanuary 30, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    inertia. acedia. lethargy. those are my words. i have stretches like that, too. blues, indeed.

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  2. Wholly JeanneJanuary 31, 2009 at 12:17 AM

    had to come back and add a p.s. (a rather long p.s.): indolence. that's the word i'm looking for. indolence. this, from a book by Henry Van Dyke (copyright 1912): "Indolence is a virtue. It comes from two Latin words, which mean freedom from anxiety or grief. And that is a wholesome state of mind. There are times and seasons when it is even a pious and blessed state of mind. Not to be in a hurry; not to be ambitious or jealous or resentful; not to feel envious of anybody; not to fret about to-day nor worry about to-morrow,--that is the way we ought all to feel at some time in our lives; and that is the kind of indolence in which our brook faithfully encouraged us . . . We toil assiduously to cram something more into those scrap-bags of knowledge which we fondly call our minds. Seldom do we rest tranquil long enough to find out whether there is anything in them already that is of real value,--any native feeling, any original thought, which would like to come out and sun itself for a while in quiet."

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  3. alsokaizenJanuary 31, 2009 at 1:46 PM

    Wow! Jeanne thanks for that awesome quote! There are definately 2 types of stillness... the peaceful sort you are describing and the stuck fast kind where inside you are as frantic as an animal in a leg trap. I am working on being able to be gentle with myself when I hit the doldrums... not easy
    it seems to go against some early training (early training that doesn't work especially well for me)
    I'm going to keep that quote in mind as I work on it

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