Pierre du Plessis

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A pervasive form of violence...

I've noticed during lockdown there is a tendency for overwork. I've had several conversations with friends who now work 14 hour days, just because there isn't anything else to do.

My friend Stan posted this piece by Thomas Merton this morning, which helped me to recentre;

There is a pervasive
form of contemporary
violence...
Activism and overwork.
The rush and pressure of
modern life are a form,
perhaps the most common form,
of its innate 
violence.
To allow yourself to be carried away
by a multitude of conflicting
concerns,
to surrender to too many
demands,
to commit oneself to too many projects,
to want to help everyone
in everything, is to
succumb to violence.

The frenzy if our
activism destroys our own
inner capacity for peace.
it destroys the
fruitfulness of our own work,
because it kills the root 
of inner wisdom which
makes work fruitful"

Thomas Merton


Get skin in the game, pace yourself.

Pierre



PS: If you've bought TRAIN NAKED, and liked it, please rate it on GOODREADS or AMAZON. Would really appreciate it.