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Senior Correspondent

Do you remember your parents asking what you were up to as a kid, and you replied, "Ohhhhhh, nothing," and it was true? Once upon a time, doing nothing seemed to be an acceptable part of childhood. I remember long, lazy summer days when my brothers and I would play the days away, making it all up as we went along. Each day was a blank page, and we created our own entertainment, relying extensively on our imaginations and a whole lot of nothing time.

Our friend Marti recently offered us her beautiful Florida home while she was in the U.K. visiting family. We were excited to explore the Naples area and naturally began to make plans for day trips. Instead, we experienced another amazing adventure — 10 days of nothing in Naples. Nothing but glorious, sunny, warm weather in the middle of January. Each day we'd make a little plan, and then do nothing. Get up the next day, make a little plan and do nothing all over again, repeating the planning charade for as long as we could before it was time to pick up and pack up.

When we returned home, our batteries were fully charged from a great deal of being rather than so much doing. We are still mining the benefits of "plenty of nothing." We resolved to bring our Florida state of mind home with us, along with a box of our favorite chocolates.

I just happened upon a wonderful little book entitled "The Power of Nothing" by Barbara Zerfoss. She suggests that most adults have a fear of "nothing" and feel most secure (less guilty) when their schedules are packed and their minds are jammed up processing, planning and scheming. Zerfoss challenges us to harness the power of nothing  to clear our minds and schedules for some regular nothing time. Nothing time gives us access to our own creativity and inspiration. Nothing time gives us access to simple solutions.

Now may not be the time to take off for Florida  I get it. Treat yourself to a couple of minutes of nothing time to start your week. Visit www.donothingfor2minutes.com.

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