Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools

Nonfiction literary compositions

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Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools

Postby The Madame X » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:27 pm

Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools
By Madame X © 2008

Western culture expressly wants us to be kept busy. We aught to be hard workers, be industrious, occupy our free time with productive hobbies, seek partners who are active and dynamic, never waste a waking minute, never be idle, and never daydream.

We are expected to get up at the crack of dawn and immediately begin our day by tending to our all too human needs and those of our family, hurry to fill the rest of the day with a financially rewarding 8 to 6 job, hurry home to tend to more needs till we finally collapse senseless due to exhaustion. When the weekend approaches we are to fill it with all those tasks we neglected throughout the week; like grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, working on the car, mowing the lawn, painting the fence, visiting the in-laws, paying the bills, balancing the checkbook… In the midst of all this and more, when do we have time for us? It is becoming harder and harder to find time in our daily routines to be introspective, creative, or otherwise release our stress.

We are told repeatedly and in many ways that “Idle hands are the Devil’s tools”, but in fact it is those very idle moments that bring us closer to our source, closer to our higher-selves and closer to our inner nature. Idle peaceful moments allow us to tap into our creative side, to practice introspection, to engage in meditation, to develop spiritual rituals, to day dream, to fantasize, to contemplate possibilities and to just stop the madness. Moments away from Dayside responsibilities are needed, if we seek to develop a healthy relationship with our selves, our conscience, our past, our present and our future. It is important to find this time in our busy schedules, step back and look around; realizing that life is beautiful, nature, human accomplishments, honest smiles, the sky, music, that sent, this color… As we become more and more entrenched in our overwhelming dayside, our burgeoning careers, our dead end jobs, our financial responsibilities, our all too human needs… we resign ourselves to losing touch with our Nightside. These idle moments have become precious treats in our society. We must therefore, strive harder to find these small niches of time to explore our natures, to compare them with others who walk our path, to continue to learn as we experience life thru our own particular window, and ultimately journey toward our dreams.

Too many of us are slaves to our Dayside demands. It really aught to be the other way: our Dayside toils should serve us. It is not an easy turn around to make, but we need to shape our Dayside so that it better serves who we are, what we want to be, and where we wish our dreams to take us. Our Dayside should ultimately enable our Nightside, not hinder it. As Nightkind we are faced with the difficult task of balancing the two. While neither should suffer prolonged or extensively, we do owe it to ourselves to find quiet peaceful moments to simply reconnect, relax and allow our dreams to take form.
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Postby Khan » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:57 am

What a magnificent article! Being culprit to many of the points you touch upon, I can only thank you for the subtle reminder. Life is truly more than just working and paying the bills.
Khan
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Postby Arioch » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:03 am

I agree with Khan wholeheartedly. About the only advance we've made in the last 50 years is more people are taking "mental health" days =)
Some countries like Japan and Sweden have seen the light long ago with their shorter work days, longer breaks, more vacation time per year, etc...
coincidence they are more productive? I think not.
As for the cliche 'idle hands are the devil's tool', my belief is the old schoolers said this to keep the young-uns busy on the farm ;)

On that note I'm late for work, haha.
Dark Blessings,
Arioch

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Postby darknessbeloved » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:40 pm

this is so true! Finding the balance there is really some kind of mastery. What I have noticed is that even spiritual or nightside activity can contribute to hyperactivity...yes, it is funny...it shouldn't be like this but you can easily become stressed with yoga there, celebration and ritual here, daily techniques in the early morning...etc. Just being idle is an art*smile* which is not known so much anymore.
I can remember my grandmother who just sat on her chair when the sun went down and didn't immediately rush to switch the lights on. She just was silent and didn't do anything, simply rested for some time. I played near her and a very magical sphere of being opened up even in me through her presence. D.B
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Re: Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools

Postby The Madame X » Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:42 am

bump
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Re: Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools

Postby LadyGigiFrost » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:43 pm

Dearest The Madame X,
I must say I think I got tired from the first paragraph of all the day side duties - lol :D
As I see it, Mon - Fri day work schedule is when I have to put on the Mask to mix in. I work hard to mix in many things that can in someway, bring some happiness to my day side from my night side. There never seems to be a enough hours in the day to meet the needs of that day side. Not even at home so I get a lot of peace. Though I love my two girls (long haired dachshunds) as they require A LOT of attention. In the last year half, I find my self so frustrated since moving to Virginia, I still have not un-packed and decorated as I normally would - deep down, I know what this means.

So, when I have my moments through out my day side, where I can slip into a dark side moment, it's worth more than all the gold in the world to me.
Meditations, and dream states seem to be speaking more loudly and more clearly for me these days.

I do feel I am at my very best when embracing my veil (night side).

Blessed Be
Lady Frost
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Dreaming of Dreaming ~Lady Frost
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