Sacred Life Sunday - Learning the Practice of Sabbath

I've been rereading Wayne Muller's book, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives and seeing how the idea/practice of a day of rest fits into my life as it is now.

When what you do is spiritual practices and what you make your living on is teaching others about those practices and how to make them their own then the line between work and rest becomes a bit blurry. Practices meant to renew can feel like drudgery and enjoyable things (like movies) can induce guilt for not being infused with meaning.

When I made my set of Story-Beads that I think of as my business set I only had six of the blue - not a number with any significance to me. I couldn't find any more blue ones so I had to figure out how to make it work.

I settled on six blue stones and a locket (which looks like the tattoo I am planning for myself) which would be the seventh day in the week - a day of rest.

The practice is tricky. I've settled on Saturday evening to Sunday evening as my day of "no work" - or at least of not working on my business.

This morning I felt myself holding onto the tension of things left undone in some volunteer work - not precisely work-related. I realized then that the idea of Sabbath is supposed to be more a feeling than sticking to the rules. If I held on the tension I'd be breaking the sabbath just as surely as if I had sat down and done the work.

I let the tension go. Later I had to do it again, but I did it. I relaxed into the day. It's an on-going practice which, like most, will fall through the cracks at some point in time. In the meantime, Happy Sunday! I hope you found it restful, in whatever way you find rest...

Rest? Sabbath?

Gathering the Lost Bits

So, this detour has been going on since Halloween morning. We've moved from crisis phase and transitioned into a new, if temporary, reality and though I know things will again change, I'm feeling the tug for a sense of personal normalcy.

That means that over the last few days I have been gathering up the lost bits of myself.

There are four journals which need to be brought back from the four corners of the Earth. A reintroduction is in order for each of them, so that I can say "Ahhh, yes, that's where we were..."

Then there are the half finished craft projects under the coffee table waiting patiently.

And my Story-Beads! My business set (the beautiful blue ones in the photo) surfaced in a bag I hadn't seen in eight weeks.

Last night I crawled under my bed to grab my yearly set which had fallen out from under my pillow a week and a half ago. The symbolism doesn't escape me: literally reclaiming my year, my time, my life from the dark places where they had been mispaced.

I've gathered the lost bits of myself and ever so gently I'll begin putting the pieces back in place. All these precious objects - the journals, the Story-Beads, the projects - they are my focusing tools that help me to keep remembering who I am and what I hope to bring into the world.

When your routine gets knocked off track, how do you come back to yourself?

Sacred Life Sunday - Detours

My little ones (7 and 11) have cried themselves to sleep on this, the last day of vacation. The 14-year-old, my newest (and temporary) charge lies restless in the other room, dreading in his own way the start of school and the necessity of leaving the security and loving warmth of being close.

Sometimes life comes along and knocks you on your ass - you know what I'm talking about. Those unexpected detours that suddenly eclipse everything else in your ordinary life.

I'm in the midst of one of those. A sister with an acute illness, a nephew calling us "home" for a while, long-lost family members crawling out of the woodwork. The whole shebang.

I had plans.

I had goals.

I had thought that my newest offering would launch by the beginning of January at the latest.

Instead, I'm taking Life's "invitation" to see what's down this path, what lessons (gallore) there might be in riding this particular roller coaster.