a glimpse of rest
I had the privilege of hearing a great sermon about the importance of taking a sabbath this evening. Mark talked about how the moments of rest are an integral part of the creative process: In Genesis, the seventh day is one of the days of creation, not an extra day after a six-day creation was complete. In music, it is the rests that shape the phrases and create beauty rather than cacophony.
That, dear readers, is all the books and articles related to my dissertation on the shelf, which really only happens on sabbath.
Most days, they look more like this:
Over the course of the working week, the piles around my desk multiply and grow precariously taller.
When I'm done working on Saturday, I save and close my working dissertation file and minimize the browser window with related websites. My teaching materials find their way into my backpack, and the sea of books and articles surrounding my desk return to their shelves.
In the breakneck pace of twenty-first century American life, and especially the diffused nature of academic work, it's sometimes hard to imagine what sabbath rest looks like. For me, it looks like this:
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| dissertation shelfie |
Most days, they look more like this:
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| piles like this populate floor near my desk |
When I'm done working on Saturday, I save and close my working dissertation file and minimize the browser window with related websites. My teaching materials find their way into my backpack, and the sea of books and articles surrounding my desk return to their shelves.
And then I rest.
I was just reading yesterday about how rest and Sabbath can be seen not as how we end our work, but how we begin it. Like how the Sabbath starts at sundown, and how in the seven-day version of the creation story, the first full day that humans experienced was the Sabbath, not a week of gardening. Which I suppose should be a reminder to me to actually rest regularly instead waiting until I feel like I have *earned* it by some nebulous and impossible standard.
ReplyDeleteYes! Plan for regular rest.
DeleteAnd rest can be defined in different ways. I don't do scholarly writing, grading, or teaching prep. Those are categorically work. Things around the house like tidying or gardening, I only do if I can do them with a joyful heart.
On very rare occasions when a structured activity with family or friends on Saturday means that I get no work done on that day, I declare it the sabbath of the week and work on work Sunday after church.
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