Saturday, January 9, 2010

Time To Rejuvenate

Forest above Salmon Creek

To Moses on the Holy Mountain:

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

When I was a child none of the stores were open on Sundays in my home town in Southern Idaho. It was nearly impossible to buy gasoline or to get a load of groceries. I've been thinking about the Sabbath, how it was written as a commandment, not a suggestion. I'm not suggesting that we go back to the "good old days". Yet, I wonder about the losses we've experiences by constantly consuming life and growing.

Today both of us pretty much vegetated. We weren't exactly spent or lethargic. But we rested. Both of us commented how strange it felt to just let the ongoing conversations about the kids be for now or how to let the house maintenance lapse for a day. We bought nothing and sought no entertainment outside the home. I felt as if I should be doing something.

Like the forest in winter, our minds need fallow times. Dormancy to rewire and to integrate all of the information continually flying at us. A time to gather silence in order to fill our words and deeds with more compassion through the coming week. Why is it so hard to be still? Are there moments of Sabbath throughout the week? What is the significance of the ancient wisdom handed sown in a commandment?

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