Mirror & Medicine, Year of Practice begins March 20. Every day, you’ll receive an email similar to the one below—a small reflection on a card, along with a prompt/spread—and you’ll have access to a Discord server where you can share your pulls and discuss with the other members of the group. We’ll meet twice a month for class/group practice. I would love to have you! Find all the information here.
I recently came across this delightful poem by Wendy Cope, called ‘Being Boring’.
May you live in interesting times.’ –Chinese curse
If you ask me ‘What’s new?’, I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it’s better today.
I’m content with the way things are going.
Yes, he is the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.
There was drama enough in my turbulent past:
Tears and passion–I’ve used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last.
If nothing much happens, I’m thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you’re after excitement, steer well clear of me.
I want to go on being boring.
I don’t go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don’t need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I’ve found a safe mooring,
I’ve just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.
It reminded me of Knight of Pentacles, or rather the reputation that this Knight has for “being boring”. They’re not as sexy or exciting or romantic, perhaps, as the other Knights. Knight of Pentacles is considered reliable and trustworthy, but dull.
I got to thinking about what it means to be bored and boring, because so much of adult life can be characterized that way. There can be a monotony in our days and our activities that can feel rather stultifying. And yet, the routine of our lives aside, we don’t often allow ourselves to be bored. We fight against it with all sorts of distraction. We seem to fear boredom, although if you google ‘the value of boredom’, they are many.
Maria Popova says
Without boredom, there would be no daydreaming and no room for reflection. Without positive constructive daydreaming, there is no creativity; without reflection, we are no longer able to respond and instead merely react.
To be bored is to be unafraid of our interior lives — a form of moral courage central to being fully human.
I like the idea of the Knight of Pentacles as possessing this kind of ‘moral courage’. The courage to be bored, to be unafraid of their interior life. I’ve long seen this card as what it looks like to live a contemplative life out in the world—not shut away in a temple somewhere, but having to participate in the routines and tasks of daily living, but doing it reflectively; prioritizing inner stillness and thoughtfulness. Cultivating ‘boredom’ seems necessary to that contemplative orientation.
Today’s prompts:
My relationship with boredom
How I distract myself from boredom
What I fear encountering/experiencing if I allow myself to be bored
What boredom could offer me