Sylvia's Journal

My self-selected messengers delivered two related messages this morning that, like Velcro, hooked onto words already floating in my mind: boredom and change. They seem opposite at first glance. One a state of mind, the other a force of nature.

I have a steady morning routine which consists of  a 10-minute meditation, a 8 to 9 mile stationary bike ride, followed by a shower and then breakfast. I recently answered someone’s question (how are you feeling?) with the word ‘bored!’ It’s the same thing every morning, day after day after day. At night I have a different routine: I listen to whatever audio book I am engrossed in while doing my electronic jigsaw puzzle. It’s not that these routines are unpleasant or forced, it’s the sameness that sometimes gets to me.

My meditation teacher talked about boredom this morning. He reminded me that the sight of a sleeping baby may seem boring to all but the parents of that child. Not much going on. Yet nothing is further from the truth. Inside that sleeping infant changes are taking place at a crazy pace. 

In our physical distance world of today many people have expressed this sense of ‘boring sameness’ to me. A joke that is circulating on FB tells it all: Until further notice the days of the week are now called 
thisday, thatday, otherday, someday, yesterday, today and nextday!

Yet around us, and possibly inside us, change is taking place at a crazy pace. All the things we took for granted (such as how we get medical care, how we meet, how we work, how we earn our living) have been thrown out of the window. Telemedicine, something some people have been pushing for decades, has now become a common form of consultation with health professionals. Flexible work hours, tele-commuting, working in remote teams became a near instantaneous reality, as if a switch was flipped.

So I am telling myself that underneath all that sameness and boredom, some awesome, and in many cases badly needed changes are actually taking place. I can only hope that these changes are so firmly embedded by the time we leave our isolated spaces that flipping the switch off again will be nearly impossible.