rhythms of rest run through all of creation ...
... from longer nights in far-northern winters, to dormant trees in the season between Autumn and Spring, to farmers’ fields left intentionally fallow through a growing season -- rest is natural part of creation’s balance.
The value of rest is similar for our spiritual lives.
Regularly scheduled opportunities for holy rest, for being with G_d, without distraction from the doing of regular routines, without the continuing drain from too-busy schedules, sheltered from judgments tied to production-based lives and vocations and relationships. Learning to simply be, as a valuable partner to the often over-powering need of doing, is a challenging practice.
Society, friends, and even family will often, even unknowingly, conspire against such radical choices. Of course, such is not about giving up entirely on the joy of accomplishment, but rather to take time to lie low for a while -- in pursuit of experiencing how much you are loved, simply for who you are, rather than for what you do; to learn how the very ability to be productive is often dependent upon the ability to occasionally, regularly, get away from the grind, in order to give yourself entirely in relationship to G_d’s presence.
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alban guide to sabbatical planning
bibliography: a short list of books
ceaseless society w/Jon Kabatt-Zinn video
eruv: protecting sanctity of sabbath
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Sabbatical Sending Forth document
soul care & the roots of clergy burnout
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the spiritual practice of play
turning aside: the indirect route of excellence
vocational ministry reflection on labyrinth
what to do if you can't find your passion
why we need to start taking sabbath seriously
wilderness sabbath: towards motherhood