Attention: Time for a Clean-up

From the Granny Jones Australian Tarot, the Four of Cups; from the Button Oracle, "Bugler:"

          In this card, one fellow looks as if he is about to nod off, while two others blindly wander around, seeking something they can't see. That feeling of restlessness and boredom is a familiar one for people whose lives aren't centered on survival. Thoreau called it "quiet desperation," and those of us who experience it find it painful and unsettling. We look for ways to fill the emptiness, reaching out to self-help books and gurus to find our bliss once again. Yet the bugler rides in blowing his horn, warning me to pay attention (the opposite of boredom, which is a lack of attention). All those ways I'm trying to distract myself (even the fun kind) might be adding to my stress and burn-out, or at the very least, prolonging the problem. Lin Jensen writes, "A foot rub lacks pleasure if you haven’t walked far enough to get sore feet. A hot shower is a bland event if you haven’t gotten dirty. Rest is pointless if you’re not tired. A meal is indifferent to one who’s not hungry." Instead of running away from my boredom via diversions, what would happen if I were to just sit still and experience it, really look inside what is going on underneath? I could take the time to peer inside each of my four rooms: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. The river in the Four of Cups looks polluted; perhaps instead of adding to my life, I'll find I need to be cleaning it up.