We are a driven people.

And whether what drives us is ambition or anger, pressure or fear or desire or purpose, the result is that we never rest. There is always something we need to do to move forward, to make the next step toward eventual success. (That’s the interesting thing about the success — it’s always eventual.)

Flying the kite can wait. What’s important is the moment, the imagination, the play. Summer Breeze, art print by Steve Henderson

In the midst of this, many people sigh,

“I wish I lived on a serene tropical island where all my needs were met, and I could just enjoy lazing around in a hammock.”

But the irony is, if they found themselves in such a situation, they’d never find their way to the hammock. It would be “wrong” to “waste” their time doing “nothing.”

Now there’s no discredit to setting goals — most notably if those goals are good and right and kind and honest which, unfortunately, not all people’s goals are — but the goals themselves can become our masters. Our purpose in life somehow becomes to achieve these goals, and nothing must get in the way of that.

The artwork, Summer Breeze, reminds us that there was one time in life when we recognized the importance of things other than goals.

A young boy strolls through a country meadow in the sunlight, the wind catching the kite in his hands and giving it a life of its own. Just like a child, he’s not flying the kite in the prescribed, proper, societally approved manner, but is pretending that it is something else — a sail, perhaps, and he is the schooner; or maybe he is a dragon, and the kite his wings.

You can see that he is deep in thought, intent upon what he is imagining, and there is a sense of contentment, creativity, and joy in every step. Whatever is driving this boy right now, it is not ambition, anger, pressure, fear, desire, or purpose.

Actually, there is nothing driving this boy right now, because he is not driven. He is free.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

When You Live Smarter, Harder, Faster — You Don’t Live

Think Like a Child

The Power of Doing Nothing