There is a great article by David Brooks on becoming people with passionate pursuit in our lives once again. In it, I was caught by his definition of “leisure.”

These days we think of “leisure” as the relaxation we do when we’re not at work. But that’s not how people historically defined leisure. To them, leisure is the state of mind we are in when we are doing what we intrinsically want to do. The word “school” comes from the word “schole,” which is Greek for leisure. School is supposed to be any place where people are engaged in the passionate search for knowledge. In his memoir, Murakami doesn’t treat writing as work and running as leisure. They are both interconnected forms of leisure. Van Gogh was in a leisurely frame of mind when he wrote about painting in a letter to his brother, “I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”

This is the place where we have pursued a dream and become not just proficient at that dream (whether writing or running or the work we have day to day) but we have become craftsmen at it. We have reached a place where even the tasks of getting something done in our new founded craft (such as putting in the miles because we are runners) are not drudgeries any longer. Long hours don’t bother us.

The article is HERE and well worth your time.