The Intelligence of the Pause

There are times when the most useful thing a man can do is pause.

A pause can be as ordinary as sitting down after a long day, going for a walk without turning it into exercise, making something to eat, working in the garden, listening to music, or simply allowing a few hours to pass without trying to make them productive.

Men are often very good at doing. Less good at stopping.

Sometimes a man's body knows before the mind does that it has had enough. The signs can be small: irritability, tiredness, difficulty concentrating, feeling that everything needs to be dealt with immediately. Sometimes the sensible response is not another solution, more chores, more busyness. It is a pause.

As we are doing here at The Listening Room HQ for a couple of weeks.

Posts at The Listening Room HQ's sister vessel, The Polymath, will also pause for a couple of weeks.

[painting: Eli Gross - Pause, 2024]

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