The Benefits of Boredom

Dear My Toy Garden friends!
   This week I have a small challenge for you..ready?  Grab your smart phone.  Set a time on it for 10 minutes.  Push Start.  Now do nothing until it goes off.  No cheating.  No checking your email.  No peeking at Facebook.  No playing a quick game of Draw Something.  When is the last time you've given yourself the gift of  doing nothing?  When do the children in your life have true down time?
   My sister and her 3 girls were down recently to visit for a long weekend bringing the total in our home to 10 active bodies and minds.  We had a great time with each other.  I did notice though from most of the beings in the house that the minute conversation lagged or activity lulled, out popped the smart phones.  There were some fun conversations about pictures to guess on Draw Something that required interaction with another person but mostly though it was solitary play surrounded by others in solitary play.
    I invite you this week to ponder the benefits of boredom.  What if the smart phones were locked away for a day..gasp..okay, an afternoon.  What would time be filled with then?  Perhaps a puzzle, a real game you can move pieces you can physically touch,  a conversation to learn something new about someone else.  I'm as guilty as the next person about the need to have my Iphone near.  It needs to be a conscious choice to be more than 5 feet from it.  
  As a classroom teacher, I often said, "As long as you have a brain, you are never bored."  I'd teach them they could always wonder why..wonder how..wonder if.  I wonder how many tiles there are the ceiling?  I wonder how long it'll take that ant to walk the whole length of the classroom?  I wonder if I can bounce a ball 100 times?  Questions build the brain.  Questions connect us to others.  Questions turn boredom into revelations and renewal.
    Take a vacation today...take 10 minutes to do nothing.  Rest, renew, reconnect and wonder away.  

Playfully,
Toylady Janet