Avoiding the pain of doing nothing

Having gotten tired this evening of sitting idly at home, I decided to step out and roam aimlessly around my neighbourhood. Only when I got on the road did I wonder which turn I should take.

I didn’t have any goal in mind – I didn’t, as I usually do, want to visit a cafe to read or write. Neither had I planned to meet someone. I just wanted to be out and surround myself with strangers.

There was a thought that I was pondering over from the book “The Little Book of Stoicism”.

A situation does not make us unhappy. Our judgements in the form of thoughts, opinions and interpretations make you unhappy.

It’s such a profound thought. The very fact that I was tired of the commonness in a moment doesn’t make me unhappy. When I let it eat me within, make me idle around the home aimlessly, stare at my smartphone as my fingers swipe on the screen – it is then that I am unhappy.

I decided I didn’t want to let that happen. I want to give myself more chances of being out there. Give my #life a chance to not be monotonous. To observe something new. Find a new place. A new cafe on the block. A new road being paved. A buzzing park. Anything. Do something.

Just thirty minutes of roaming around today made me avoid the pain of doing nothing.

On my way back, I saw a man struggling to pull his motorcycle out of a parking lot. A wheel was stuck in a pothole and he could move it neither ahead nor behind. The helplessness on his face was palpable.

I stopped and asked him if he needed any help. Shocked at first and embarrassed later, he eventually gave in and accepted my offer. We managed to pull his motorcycle out from the pothole and him out of the troubling situation that he was in.

I walked home happily – I like to think he wasn’t too unhappy either with the situation he had found himself in. A win-win for all involved I would say.