This week, until 15 November, Kevin Mayhew Ltd are offering 10 per cent off The Teacher, normally retailing at £14.99. That means a saving of £1.50 using the code UNFOLDING10 when ordering the book from the company’s website. Just type the code into the relevant box at the online checkout between the dates given.
Meanwhile, here’s the last of the sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.
Laziness
I woke up late and laid in bed, telling myself that the job I had planned could wait a bit . . . till the next day . . . or the next . . . or the next. And somehow it never got done, along with a host of others. Yet, far from feeling rested by my indolence, I felt burdened by tasks weighing upon me, heavy as lead, crushing the breath from my body and life from my spirit.
And the Teacher approached me, saying, ‘Consider the ant, you lazy thing; reflect on its busy lifestyle, and be wise. How much longer are you going to lie there, you idler? Beware of loving sleep too much, for otherwise you will become poor; wake up, and you will have more than enough of all you need.’
And I said to the Teacher, ‘Leave me to rest longer. A few minutes more cannot hurt.’
Then the Teacher told me a story – short and simple: ‘I passed by the field of one who was lazy, by the vineyard of someone with no sense; and I saw that it was all overrun with thistles; the ground strewn with weeds, and its stone wall in ruins. I took careful note of what I saw; I looked and received instruction. A quick doze, a brief nap, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a thief, and penury like a brigand.’
‘Surely you exaggerate,’ I protested. ‘Can this really be so?’
And the Teacher continued, ‘The idle fail to plough when they should do; then, when the time for harvesting arrives, there is nothing to reap. Sow your seed in the morning, and keep busy even into the evening, for you have no way of knowing which of your labours will prosper. Maybe one will, maybe another – even perhaps both.’
Then I realised that if we would fulfil our potential and achieve our goals, we must work for them first, for without effort there can be no gain, without labour no reward. And I saw that what we often blame on circumstance can be down in fact to laziness, what we fail to do down to what we failed to do.
I understood further that what we put off until tomorrow hangs over us today, the knowledge of tasks undone returning to haunt us. Better to be ahead in our work than behind, for then we can relax not just in body but also in mind.
I saw also that nothing is more wearying than doing nothing; that idleness numbs rather than refreshes us, undermining the flesh and sapping the spirit.
So then, my conclusion is this: what we put in is what we get out. What we put off is what gets left out. Work first then, rest later, and the results may surprise you.