I think it was around this past New Years Day. I was getting tired of New Years food and cooked Beef Tendon with Red Wine, only because those tendon was fairly inexpensive. I didn’t have any recipe for this dish, so I did everything by my hunch. Surprisingly the result was amazing! I tried to reproduce that dish so many times afterwards, but so far I could not even come close to the one I cooked without knowing anything.
We often do something without knowing what we do, but we do it so naturally, then meet with great result. We experience in sports, too. Hitting a ball with baseball bat, playing succer etc. When I play tennis, sometimes I try so hard to hit the ball on the best position on my racket but often unsuccessful and when I am not thinking anything and when my body moves naturally, I often hit the ball right at the point.
When we don’t think, we are in passive mode.
I remember sometime in my elementary school days, we read a short essay talking about being active vs passive.
Teacher made it sounds like being active translates to being responsible, initiative, independent, but being passive is dependent, not responsible, indifferent. So, the short answer: Active; a virtue, passive; a shame!
Is it? Really?
In the morning, we wake up early, going to work. Then we think about the day’s schedule, I will have to do this and that..we are mentally preparing for what will come on that day. We are in active mode. But getting into the car for work and think about those, we often sigh, physically or mentally.
What would happen if we deal with this in passive mode. Since we are passive we do not need any preparation. Anything on the schedule book will come by themselves. No preparation, therefore, less stress, less fatigue.
When I talked about this with my college students, one of them said,”Maybe it is a Japanese culture that pushes you to be active all the time”.
It might well be, but it might not be.
One thing for sure is that when we have less stress we will likely to find something new in everyday life, however the same routine we are going through.
How about trying to find a way to be a little more passive everyday?
It might not be so bad!
I am learning these from music, as the only way to feel is being passive and realize the sound come to you, not you going there to get those sounds.