Relaxing is an art.....

This was written over 30 years ago, long before the Internet.....

Sitting is an art that isn't getting passed on. People these days feel as though they have to be doing something. If they're not working, they're jogging, playing tennis or golf, or taking courses to improve their minds and bodies - or they are parked in front of the TV. Sitting in front of a TV isn't sitting - it's watching.

People used to sit a whole lot. You'd walk down the street or drive down the road, and there they'd be, out on the porch, sitting. You could go down to the store and sit on a bench our front in the summer or around the potbellied stove in the winter. There were sitting benches out on the courthouse lawn. At the garage there were straight-backed chairs. There among the oil cans and windshield-wiper blades, you could kick back and sit.

Houses used to have sitting rooms, where the grown-ups would go after Sunday dinner. Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Aunt Ruby would sit and digest the fried chicken and talk about Aunt Ethel's gallstones, and how good the preacher did today. Outside, the children would play, and the afternoon would drift by in a comfortable haze.

That sort of thing looks like doing nothing. A recharging battery doesn't look as if it's doing anything either. Sitting restores your soul. If you want to enjoy a truly full life, don't just do something - sit there.

- Leroy Powell, Out of My Head