When Doing is Not an Option. Have you ever experienced a time when most of your activity was put on hold? Twice in the past three weeks I have been homebound for different reasons. In the first instance it was due to COVID and in the second I fell on ice and had difficulty walking. In each instance I was alone at home for five days and unable to engage normal activities such as grocery shopping, swimming, getting a haircut, etc. This inactive isolation provided the opportunity to revisit the relationship between being and doing.
It’s a Can Do Culture. We live in a culture that accords high value on doing, achievement, accomplishment and success. Do well in school, do well at your job, do well in marriage and in raising a family, do what’s needed to make friendships work, and do what’s healthy for mind/body/spirit are but a few situations where doing and accomplishing reign paramount. While all this is fine, good and even necessary there is an inherent problem in over-focusing on accomplishments.
The Gift of Simple Being. The problem is that the power of our motivation to do, even with good intentions can overshadow the value of simply being open in the moment to whatever is ongoing in and/or around us. When our ability to do is removed for whatever reason as was my recent situation with COVID and the fall on ice we are at risk for doubting our value as a person because we equate doing (hard work, accomplishments, achievements) with our worth and determinate of who we are, our identity. Times of less activity can be one for increased personal reflection and perspective taking. Creative inspirations can arise from the margins of consciousness as of necessity we put in the clutch of our discursive, conceptual, always thinking mind.
Other situations that can undo us from doing are medical treatments and convalescence, natural disasters and even intended periods such as a long anticipated retirement, walking on the beach with no particular destination, meditation or a retreat. At such times, especially those that are beyond our control it is important to recognize that doing will eventually return for a more complementary experience of life - or as the Bible says “for everything there is a season”. Until then I can do as I can, not as I can’t.
Beyond Being and Doing. As graphically represented by the Chinese symbol of yin/yang showing the complementarity of polarity, in this case being and doing, there is recognition of a whole that encircles and embraces both. So if I’m unable to do as is my custom, just be, and accept what I cannot change, i. e. whatever is. This is patience waiting and a virtue. Given the impermanence of the “ten thousand things” change will come and with it the opportunity for both being and doing; and hopefully, in a balanced manner with some of each in the other as depicted in the yin/yang symbol and all in recognition of each ones unique value. Does this being/doing distinction resonate for you?
Photo: Kathmandu Restaurant, Nederland CO - © 2024 Ronald Barnett.
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