Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

Lying in the grass and watching clouds drift gets defended as legitimate use of time, not laziness. Listening to water and tracking the sky are treated as valuable in themselves. It's an argument that stillness deserves the same respect as labor.

Context reviewed 24 September 2026