I was out on a bike ride in the Skagit Valley near the church camp we rent for our overnight retreats on Samish Island. I’ve really come to appreciate this area for its beauty and peace.
I’m also a birdwatcher and I know that mid-summer is a lull in the birding action. There are just a few common species around. Most of the interesting birds are here in the winter and off in the arctic in the summer feeding and breeding.
There are even a few super-star birds here in winter that birders from far and wide travel to Skagit to see. At peak times, crowds of birders with their binoculars, spotting scopes, and huge cameras line the roads to see Short-Eared Owls!
So I was surprised to see someone walking along the road holding a birder’s camera. I wondered if maybe there was a rare bird around so I asked him what he was looking for. And his answer actually really impressed me.
He said, “Oh nothing much, just getting out to take a look.”
He wasn’t here to “bag” a rarely seen Snowy Owl or Rough Legged Hawk. He’d seen a Great Blue Heron – beautiful, but also common (and featured in the Mindfulness Northwest logo!). He was just here to see what could be seen with no particular purpose or goal. He seemed relaxed and happy.
This reminded me how purpose-driven I can be. How often I prioritize productivity and novelty. The central question is always, “What needs to get done?” or, “What will I accomplish?” or, at least, “What will I get out of this?”
As I listened to this lone birder sharing that he was here simply to relax and look around with no expectations, I felt something in me relax and soften, too.
Yes, that’s right, I thought to myself. To be a sane and grounded person I need times that aren’t about getting stuff done or having new experiences.
And I don’t mean relaxing on the couch (although we need some of that too!). I’m thinking of times of engagement, curiosity, and interest that are unhooked from expectations and results. Making the choice to use time without purpose or outcome when we could certainly have made another choice! The birder I met could have been at work or doing home chores or running errands, but, no, there he was under the wide open skies of the Skagit Flats looking around to see what he could see.
Meditation has helped me learn the value of this kind of active engaged non-productiveness, too. I’ve seen how my practice can be a counterbalance to being so busy and outcome oriented.
My Buddhist teacher once told us something that amused and shocked me a bit at the time. He said, “Do you know what the great thing is about meditation? It’s how useless it is!” And I realized what he was saying: If our whole lives are all about usefulness and utility and there’s no space for the “use-less,” we are all lost in the hamster wheel of stress. What kind of life is that
What are your ways of engaging without being so hooked by outcomes? Are there hobbies or activities where you can access that feeling? Do you also find meditation helpful?
I want to take a moment and reflect with you how the word “useless” lands! Isn’t it interesting how it sounds so negative? Like that can only be a bad thing? What if, when engaged in the right way, it turns out that uselessness is a deeply healing thing? What if it leads to a taste of freedom and ease?
To explore meditation as a path to this necessary uselessness, I invite you to join us for a workshop or class, or use our free recordings. Or try us for a meditation retreat.
For a day, or a weekend, or even five days, we practice being alert, engaged, and relaxed all day long as we produce and accomplish absolutely nothing. It can be challenging to unhook from the habits and attitudes that are in us around being productive for sure, but it can ultimately be amazingly freeing and joyous too!
A few retreats I’m helping to teach coming up include our Fall 3-day Retreat right here in the Skagit Valley and our 5-day Roots of Compassion retreat held in North Bend just above Seattle.
Maybe I’ll get to see you there and we can celebrate being useless together!
~Tim