Okay, so I meant to publish this last Friday, but as each day blends into the next, I didn’t realize it was Friday until…Saturday. So I figured I’d delay until today.

With much of the world shutting down, I have not yet had a chance to be bored. My young kids are with me 24/7, and I am still working full time, albeit from home. So, although I am spending more time playing with kids, hanging out with them outdoors, biking with them, etc., I have less leisure time, since I have to use all my “down time” to do my job. In fact, I’m getting less sleep than I was.

However.

That is not the case for everyone, and I have enjoyed seeing the way the world is opening up to help us all feel a bit more connected.

Even with less “leisure” time, I have been spending more time being creative–drawing with my daughter, building custom Easter crates (in lieu of forgetting to shop for Easter baskets), building a leprechaun trap out of sticks from the back yard. They are not life-changing inventions, but they are creative and will certainly be memorable for my kids.

It has gotten me thinking about the benefits of boredom. Boredom is the seed of so many innovations. Issac Newton was “bored” during a similar shutdown (plague) and made great strides in discovering gravity and calculus. As a writer, I’ve read and heard so much advice about the importance of being bored. It is from boredom that creativity grows.

I thought I’d share some of the resources I have encountered in the past few weeks of fellow humans using “boredom” (or “free time”) in beneficial ways.

• Check out Patrick Stewart, who has been reading a Shakespearean sonnet each day: https://www.instagram.com/sirpatstew/
• You can take a tour of Dracula’s castle… from your couch.
• Yo-Yo Ma has been posting videos of him playing cello: https://www.facebook.com/watch/YoYoMa/
• Eric Carle reads his own “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
• Watch the Israel Philharmonic play together (via social distancing) for a Passover greeting

There’s so much out there, it makes me feel hope, even as we read terrible news stories. People are still thinking of each other, still reaching out to one another, still trying to make the world a better place.

So make the best of boredom. It’s not often in our lives that we can.