Boredom
And the things we learn
Boredom is a good thing. We just don’t know what to do with it.
I’m staying with a family with three kids—11, 10, and 4—and you can always tell when it hits.
Not just the whining of “I’m bored,” but the signs:
opening the fridge and staring with no real hunger,
reaching for the TV,
defaulting to tablets.
Trying to make the feeling go away. I get it. Adults just disguise it better.
Last night after dinner, I said, “I’m going for a walk if anyone wants to come.” A chorus of “No, thank you.”
A few minutes later, the 4-year-old arrested me—no clear charges, no explanation, just jail. But even prisoners get outside time, I whined. So my guard escorted me out. The older two followed, bikes came out, and just like that—we were outside.
No one was bored anymore. It wasn’t the walk. It was the imagination.
That same feeling took me back to an airport in Tanzania. It was around 1 a.m.—closed airport, hard chairs, one vending machine, nothing I wanted to do. I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to read, didn’t want to watch anything. Just stuck. There were only about 5 of us in this area.
Until I noticed two men cleaning the floors.
We didn’t share a language, but it didn’t matter. A few gestures later, they had me riding the floor machine back and forth, laughing like a kid. I can now say I cleaned the floors in a Tanzanian airport. And just like that—I wasn’t bored anymore.
Boredom isn’t the problem. It’s the moment right before something unexpected happens. But you have to let it. Not numb it, not scroll it away, not fill it immediately. Just sit in it long enough for imagination—or curiosity—to step in.
Sometimes the best moments don’t come from plans. They come from being bored enough to say yes to something strange.
Most people aren’t too busy. They’re just unwilling to be bored long enough to discover something better.
#newleasaonlife #thelongwayhome.