When I was in graduate school, I had a mantra that often helped me through days of intensive study. “Read. Write. Rest. Repeat.” Recently, I’ve found those words re-entering my life. They’ve changed slightly, but they still seem to do the trick. They offer me a pattern that engages, fulfills and restores. Work can be substituted for write and often exercise makes its way into the rest category. Bottom line - my rhythm feels pretty simple and I love it.It was little surprise, therefore, when I reached for my Kindle yesterday and noticed I was still on the chapter, "Sabbath", in An Altar in the World. My highlighter has worked overtime in this book, (yes, I still underline and make notes in my books – how else will those who read after me know what I found important?) but the passage that stood out today spoke of the lighting of two candles on Shabbat - how one is for rest and the other freedom. The intertwining of those two concepts - freedom and rest - reminds me not only of my mantra, but also the larger notion that without rest, freedom is very likely absent.
It is a fine balance we walk in this world that says productivity is god. Barbara Brown Taylor says this is worshiping the wrong god, and I wholeheartedly agree. So, it was with great pleasure yesterday that I curled up with my cat and my book and found a piece of Sabbath in the midst of a potentially full day. I slowed down just enough for God to find me and for that I am grateful and offer up my praise. It's amazing what happens when I get out of my own way!!
So, do you have a mantra? What does it offer you? Productivity? Sabbath? Both? Neither? Do tell!
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Lovely post. I've been doing something similar, just giving myself time to take in art, to relax with a good book, to go for a walk.
I love that notion that through rest we gain freedom.
Not so much a mantra, as a motto: When in doubt, wash dishes. I may have mentioned that here before.
Yesterday in the freshman English class I teach, we discussed an excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X in which he teaches himself to read in prison by copying the entire dictionary. He says he had never been so free until that time of his life.
maureen - i, too, love the idea of rest leading to freedom. we seem to forget the commandment of keeping the sabbath which sits right alongside those other thou shalt not's such as killing & idolizing other gods.
polli - your motto is definitely a keeper!!! do you perchance have the excerpt from malcolm x handy? my son has been quite taken with the dictionary and i think he would find that reading quite valuable.
I am in the midst of seeing that my moments with God can be different from an established pattern...although I feel whole heartedly I must have some pattern for myself. I've wondered lately how much "alone time" Jesus had once his popularity escalated. Not that my life is a match to that, but very little privacy means I am finding God speaking in population rather than in a quiet moment all to myself.
My mantra since March - "All is well, I trust the process of life." As I look at what I've written here in response to your post...I find that mantra quite interesting in terms of where I am now compared to the exhaustive amount of personal time I have in other seasons of the year...hmmmm.
Thank you as always for sharing...I am better for it.
Ooh, I like this. Gotta get a handle on the rest part, though; I seem to be stuck in read, write, repeat!
jennifer - i love to see you come here and do a little processing in my presence - i am better for it, yes! i agree that god most often shows up in surprising places that are outside my normal patterns. i was working with a woman who described an experience of healing - her response was "that's not supposed to happen there," because it was a place where she wouldn't typically expect to find god. guess that shows us what we can do with our patterns and expectations, huh?
drw - perhaps if you remember rest = freedom, you might find a way to fit it in :-)
I think that is exactly what I'm learning about living; "on earth as it is in heaven"...it isn't confined to a set of processes and expectations...it is way more spontaneous than that. If only I could adapt to that a bit better :)!
Thank you for allowing me this space to share with you, I find it so refreshing.
jennifer - i love the ongoing conversation. so glad you're here!
I don't have one...but I think I need to come up with one. I've been in a curious place recently--I have been wanting to rest, but I feel guilty about not being productive, so I find myself spending a great deal of time in mind-numbing activities. Not resting, not productive--and feeling guilty. Perhaps I need to acknowledge the need for rest, allow the rest, and then move on. Also, it seems like I need to commit--commit to the productivity, or commit to the rest, but never waste internal peace with wavering.
Karen - you do realize you came up with your own mantra in another comment, right? I think it goes something like this - relax, ask, listen... Sounds perfect for where you find yourself - methinks ;) xoxo
I will read write and rest when my children and grandchildren have gone back home. In fact it will be more like pray garden read write and rest...
:-)))
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