il bel far niente

The tattoo on my forearm...il bel far niente...the italian expression meaning "the beauty of doing nothing," is constantly questioned especially by people who don't know me at all. Sometimes when asked what it means I make up something ridiculous just to get a reaction. However, when I do tell people what it actually means, typically their response is "oh how depressing." How depressing, really? To a pessimist of course. To me...not so much.

The beauty of doing nothing is really the space between all the hustle and bustle of life. Learning to appreciate the down time with your family and friends, the time spent doing "nothing" is what is really important to me. These are the moments that matter.

I know a lot of people who spend so much of their time focused on money, money, career, career, you know, the American way, and I just can't understand why. What for? None of it matters. In the end, what will career focused success and money bring you? Absolutely nothing. Nothing but more desire to desire more. It never ends.

I decided a couple of years ago that I will not fall into this typical way of living and I will measure my success through my relationships with people and my experience in life. This to me is what truly matters because ultimately it will shape you into the person that you were meant to become. All the doing "nothing" will help create opportunities for me to understand what is important, and therefore in turn, what is NOT.

This may not be the way everyone thinks, and I completely appreciate that, however, this works for me. This is what makes me happy, and what helps me to realize that in the end ((whatever the end is)) I will have spent my time enjoying doing nothing. Nothing else matters. It never will. Not to me. Nor to anyone else willing to take a step back and really see, really feel, life as it is.


“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou.