Only boring people get bored

 

My generations knew something about isolation.

My maternal grandmother moved from Ohio to the North Dakota prairie in the early 1900s.  The Homestead Act President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1862 promised 160 acres of land to settlers in the west, provided they lived 5 continuous years on the property and made some improvements on it   So my grandparents took advantage of the free land.  My grandmother lived on her share, my grandfather lived on his.  During the arctic-like winters, they’d use their dog as their message courier.   If my grandmother needed to say something to her husband, she’d write her message, tie it on the dog and send him on his way to my grandpa’s shack and vice versa.  I often wonder how my grandmother survived living alone on the prairie in the days before telephone, internet or even electricity.  I never knew her, she was dead before I was born, but  she played piano, I heard, and she sang.

My mom, then, grew up on the North Dakota prairie with all the hardships one could imagine of the 1930s and 40s–no electricity, no school bus, no xbox. She  walked across the prairie in the frigid winters to and from school.  So with all this in mind, consider what my mom would say:

Only boring people get bored.

So if we zoom ahead almost 80 years, here we all with our modern conveniences, able to converse with people on the other side of the world whenever we want, able to access information of any sort in seconds and what are we?  We are bored, especially if we’re living in isolation.

The first reason for this boredom is our souls need other souls.  Nothing can substitute for face-to-face contact (and skype doesn’t count).

A second reason is we are lazy.  We know our houses need cleaning, but we don’t want to do it.  So we sit around and look at our dirty houses and get depressed about them being dirty instead of getting off our buns and cleaning, or organizing or throwing away clutter.

We get bored because we are running away from God and He is the only one who can fill the God-shaped hole in our heart.  We try to fill it with food, drugs, alcohol or some other habit only to come up empty every time.

Another reason is because we have relied way too much on television to entertain us instead of turning to hobbies or our creative side.  Our bodies crave the feel-good serotonin hormones that come from physical exercise.  Our minds crave the excitement of discovery.  Our spirits crave creating something because we are made in the image of the Ultimate Creator.

My mom and grandmas would crochet, bake, garden and invite neighbors over.  Of course we don’t need to do these particular things, but we need to do something to get ourselves out of the rut we are in.  I find if I just do that one thing I’ve put off, I feel better.  Try it.  You’ll be glad you did.