💬 Quotes
Look back in memory and consider…how many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing, how much was taken up in useless sorrow, in foolish joy, in greedy desire, in the allurements of society, how little of yourself was left to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your season!
Seneca, ‘On the Shortness of Life’
Our cultural attachment to our phones, she says, is paradoxically both destroying our ability to be bored, and preventing us from ever being truly entertained.
“We’re trying to swipe and scroll the boredom away, but in doing that, we’re actually making ourselves more prone to boredom, because every time we get our phone out we’re not allowing our mind to wander and to solve our own boredom problems,” Mann says, adding that people can become addicted to the constant dopamine hit of new and novel content that phones provide. “Our tolerance for boredom just changes completely, and we need more and more to stop being bored.”
A quote from Sandi Mann, a senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. as well as the author of The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom Is Good.
Although a relatively older article, I’m always looking for insights from credible sources that effectively back up what my kids have been hearing from me for years.
I watched just a snippet of an interview Kate Bowler did with Fr. Greg Boyle and he said something that I’ve found myself chewing on a bit this morning.
“I believe God protects me from nothing but sustains me in everything.”
It’s ironic—every time I share what I think is fatherly wisdom with one of my kids, I soon stumble upon a quote from someone far more accomplished that echoes the same thought. I end up sharing their words—not to validate my own, but because sometimes another voice resonates more than a parent’s.
I was reading the chapter on community building in The Second Mountain by David Brooks and then the following quote shows up in my Readwise daily review. It’s not intuitive to correlate these books but the idea of collective wisdom and the value of community over individualism is highlighted here.
The power of habit.
Our church is currently going through a sermon series on prayer. Coincidentally, my daily Readwise review included the following highlight today:
While reading today’s entry in ‘Streams in the Desert,’ I came across the following quote:
“Believe God’s word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.” - Samuel Rutherford
This was offered in the context of distinguishing between the fact of God’s presence, and the emotion of the fact.
According to Adam Grant:
“Seeing leisure time as wasteful is bad for well-being.
New data: people who see play as unproductive enjoy it less—and are more likely to be anxious, depressed, and stressed.
Even if you don’t see fun as productive, it’s worth remembering there’s more to life than productivity.”
As I exit the weekend and begin my Monday feeling less than refreshed, I realize I need to work on accepting and enjoying leisure time. Perhaps, even intentionally schedule leisure time? Something to consider.