Recent days found me knocking on God’s door a little more insistently, seeking His light for the path ahead, for I have been sensing the edges of my spirit drying up a little, curling inwards, tired and weary once more, hence, getting fraught more easily. Initially, I ascribed it to sadness and adjustment required with the oldest two having left home for studies, the never ending work pressure and all manner of workplace and home shenanigans. While there was no major upheaval, not even the slightest trace of tumult, nonetheless, I felt as if I was being splintered.
Unsure as to how to proceed, I finally went before Him in Adoration and threw myself into His waiting Heart. With the past weeks being what they had been, I had fallen away from my daily practice of slipping away to be still with my Jesus. Even as my daily Bible readings and prayers continued, the demands of weeks past had drawn me deeper into the whorls of busyness; soon, I had forgotten how important it was just to be still and to do nothing.
Until today. This being the feast of St Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, my spiritual father, I went in search of some reading with the hope that I would find a door which led to my beloved saint.
Padre Pio was indeed waiting for me – except that his words were not what I had expected.
Il dolce far niente
The sweetness of doing nothing
No lightning bolt of illumination, no word speared through my spirit. Instead, it was the call to the sweetness of doing nothing. To let go and to be freed. To pull away from the highways of this world, to return to the water’s edge.
To watch the changing of the season, the spirit’s summer of cheer and bustle gentling into autumn’s quiet wait.
writingonmyheart 
It is strange how we find so many answers in quietude. It is as if we least expect to find the answers there. We always think we must ‘do something’ in order to find answers. It is as scripture promises, that God finds us when we seek Him with all of our heart. Many things compete with our time and our hearts. We are endlessly busy. In the slow and quiet lane, like a country road that simply winds along on a summer day, there, God is waiting for us. He always waits for us to catch up with ourselves and to hear His steady calming voice. The wind roars through the mountains, but even there, God will find us and still the wind. He loves us so very much at all times and through all eternity. How strange it is that we can hardly pause, and yet there it is, all of eternity just waiting in the wings of time.
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I think there are people who can keep a keen ear out for the voice of God even in busyness. I, however, fall amongst those who tend to lean more against our own understandings in the busyness of life, and are thus rendered a little… deaf and blind – until we return to our quiet roots. Only there, as you say, lie all the answers.
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I stand corrected above…’We find God, when we seek Him with all of our hearts, not the other way around.” I meant to say that we find Him! (I should answer these blogs in the morning! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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No worries, Linda. I got what you meant😊😊
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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Amen. We have the statue of St. Joseph traveling to our parish this weekend. We have all been invited to take a break from labor to honor the patron saint of workers. For those who toil and feel the imperative to do so relentlessly it is a hard thing to do – to lay aside the tools and schedules and deadlines – and just rest. I hope you are refreshed and restored. ❤
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Thanks so much for this, Val. It is as much a hope as it is a prayer from you for me. May God grant it.
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It so hard to experience “the sweetness of doing nothing,” isn’t it? I’m glad you heard that as the answer to your prayer. We need that in our lives, I think!
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You’re so right, Ann. It is hard indeed to actually stop and be still. I just read something on the Internet that makes it so clear for me. Paraphrased, it is that we are so busy doing God’s work that we forget that to pause and be still in His presence is also His will for us. It seems to me there are 2 ways to look at it – we forget rest because we are consumed doing what He has actually willed for us or… we are too busy doing His work but not His exact will😄
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I think you are right!
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