Jiali said this to me long time ago (when i was in J2 or something..haha. I wonder if she remembers). She told me (or mentioned that some pple..) get busy for the sake of being busy. Got reminded of it today while talking to a friend :)
I think in Singapore, some of us have the (mis)conception that being busy is good. It means you're productive. It means you're doing something. It means that you're hardworking. So basically, the word 'busy' is mostly associated with good connotations.
I guess, along the years I've learned that being busy is not necessarily good (of course, 'busy' people may disagree with me on this. haha) And being busy for the sake of being busy (for whatever reasons the person may wish to do so, perhaps to fool himself/herself into thinking that he/she's productive, perhaps to fool others into thinking that the person who's busy is needed everywhere.. ) is definitely not a good sign. It could be due to insecurity (having the need to base self-worth on the things you're doing) or due to the fact that one is hiding something or running away from something else.
That's not to say that we shy away from being busy. That we grumble when we've got lots of things to do and complain about the lack of time. No, I believe that much can be learned and done in busy periods as well.
It's just that, I guess, sometimes it's good to slow down and think. To plan. Especially to think. To make sense of things. To ponder through our motives. To wonder why we did certain things. Thinking is good. I like to think. So maybe that's why I feel it's good. But from observations around, it does seem that thinking is good :) (though brooding is not).
I do more things when I have time to settle down and think. To plan out things that need planning, to think about what i can do in some situations, to pray about situations which I face and ask God for wisdom, to just settle down and make sense of all the things that have happened thus far and to learn from them.
It's an art to be still I guess.