il bel far niente (the beauty of doing nothing)

I wrote this last Tuesday. Just want to post it. Hehehe...Wala naman atang papalag?

This night is the last night of my stay here in Cagayan de Oro, having my week break from work and other work-related brouhahas. The night is so calm and all I can hear as of the moment is the silent whirring of the ceiling fan and the silent orchestra of the keyboards and my heart, not to mention the snore of the sleeping neighbor. Tomorrow I’ll be heading for Davao and be stomped again by papers and neck-breaking backlogs. But that is work, and to face it is inevitable. Sans the mention of stress and the constant consumption of patience. Oh boy, I hope there’s a 24/7 store for this patience. Anyway, the rest is over, which is quite disappointing and nostalgic, for the fact that for the past 8 days of staying here I felt so at home with the knowledge of doing nothing. Yes, the idea of staying at home and waking up at your face slapped by the midday’s rays. Yes, the idea of “Il bel far niente” as what Eat, Pray, Love mentioned. Yes, it is the beauty of doing nothing.

But let me be defensive in this matter, it is doing nothing but accomplishing something. In my short stay here in CDO I have met friends and I have shared precious and meaningful time with my honey. I came to love the fact that I allotted myself ample time to appreciate the pointless things in life (as what I have might think of them or perhaps you yourselves) and find values in things so mundane. Things like walking under an umbrella with your special one during a cold, rainy three o’clock afternoon, reading your new book which was quite stressed outside but so fresh inside because it was not touched nor even read, pigging out on a pizza and ice cream on a drizzly afternoon, lying on your bed with Andrea Bocelli on, and dumping inside the bathroom sans the hurry (since there’s no pressure of work). And another one, staring at the ceiling fan and trying to argue with yourself that it’s turning counterclockwise. Such a reckless waste of time as one might say but such a time of recollection and peace as I might so consider.

I remembered before when I was in high school or in my earlier days of college, I was myself a nazi for time consciousness (not the management though). A single minute wasted is a mortal sin and an hour of squandered moment is a hell. That was a time when I was hard of myself. Currently, I think I overdo it though. Well, you can’t blame me for I am battered by work for almost five years already. I deserve this modest amount of rest. No worries. No guilt. No work. Pure rest, miles and miles away from work. That is what I called pure bliss. You know, the likes of waking up one hour before noon and drinking your coffee with the music on and with your underpants only. If this is a crime, I say then that I’d love to be a criminal. This pleasure of doing nothing and enslaving time is quite addictive.

But everything will have to end. Few hours from the moment I write this, I will be already in the bus for Davao. Attraversiamo. Let’s cross over. I have to cross over from the pleasures of guiltless self-indulgence to the stressful realities of work. Again, attraversiamo.

written on November 2, 2010, 3:09am