Shine and Rise Above Boredom

A negative side of boredom is that it keeps us empty and feeling trapped in life. It keeps our aspirations down to just get by. My wife, daughter and I enjoyed a weekend recently in Kerrville at the Kerrville folk festival. I had been wanting to attend it for years as I remember enjoying the University of Chicago Folk Festival when I lived in Chicago. We need those times of breaking away from our routines to something different. The night we went we were inspired by the folk music of legends Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary fame. It was sad that Mary is no longer with them due to losing her hard fought battle with cancer. Their concert ended with all the children in the audience going up to sing Puff The Magic Dragon with them.

The inspirational part of their concert to me was to see both men continuing to grow in creating new music. They could have sat for an hour playing all their favorites and the crowd would have loved it but they each in an individual set, played some new songs as well as old favorites. This is an example of not getting trapped into set ways but rising above by keeping creativity flowing.

I came across this song by the metal band RED called Break Me Down which speaks to me about the battle of boredom. I felt the lyrics were descriptive of the sense of nothingness, being trapped in the shadows that we experience when we are controlled by boredom. The phrase, “I find a stranger trapped within” fits well with boredom as when boredom is with us too long we do feel strange as that is not the way we were created to be. Take a moment to reflect over the lyrics of the song. As usual when I do one of these song exercises I have the weblink to the song so you can listen to it. Try it out, if you do not enjoy metal rock you can always stop it and just reflect over the words. The link I am using puts the song to an anime video. I am including it as my teen daughter enjoys anime. Also I believe it sort of shows the battle that goes on in our life journey. Here is the link:
http://www.last.fm/music/Red/_/break+me+down"Break Me Down"
Songwriters: Armstrong, Anthony; Graves, Robert Douglas; Rauch, Jasen of RED

A long day alone, Emptiness is so real, Never having peace of mind
Running from what I can't see, And there is nowhere left to hide
Turn and face these empty eyes , All alone, heart untold, Trying to find

Break me down replace this fear inside Take this nothingness from me
I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

I try to find myself, I find the stranger trapped inside
And I'll take one more step away, From the face I used to recognize
Familiar shadows closing in, Suffocating fear descends
It comes alive, uncovered eyes

I'm trying to find, Break me down replace this fear inside
Take this nothingness from me, I want to find
I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

Replace this fear inside, Take this nothingness from me
I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

Break me down, I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down
Break me!
Here are some of my thoughts from the lyrics as I think over our battle with boredom in life, We were made by our Creator to be people who “find”. Meaning we have innate curiosity to grow and learn and explore new things. Observe young children, their eyes are always darting about looking at new objects in their environment with a deep curiosity. Boredom keeps us trapped in the shadows of our comfort zone and hinders us from exploring new ideas, new places, new environments, new books ( I had to get books into the list as a faithful bookhead).

We were also created to “shine”. God has given each of us talents and natural gifts to help us enjoy life more and to brighten the lives of others around us. But instead of shining with the talents we have our lives our dulled by the feelings of nothingness. It tells us there is nothing special about us, that we can’t do anything. There is that word can’t again. By breaking out of the nothingness of boredom we are free to shine in our talents so as to enjoy our life journey better and our shine can help brighten others lives.

Another aspiration placed in us by our Creator is to “rise”. We all want to be noticed and be recognized. Arrogance takes this aspiration to the extreme. At that point we are usually outwardly or inwardly disdained by others. There is nothing wrong with rising above the okness of life. There is nothing wrong in improving our talents and striving for excellence. On our trip to Kerrville I spoke with a cheerful hotel worker about my blog. She liked the title as she said she felt really great about her level of spirituality but the other areas of her life she admitted were just ok not really flourishing. I believe we can keep rising in a balanced way in all areas of our lives.

The song kept repeating the phrase, “Break me down”. I am not sure what the artists mean by that. I see it in the sense of taking an honest look at where we are at. As I have mentioned before boredom is a sign post trying to tell us either to take time to chill out and enjoy the present moment, or time to make a change in our lives. Break out and try something new. Take a trip to a folk festival, pick up a new book, learn a new hobby.

Reflection:
What is your Curiosity level? Are you still trying to “find” new things,(hobbies, music, sports, books, new friends) to improve your life?
What is your talent you have where you wish to rise and shine?