Blogger: Etta Wilson
Location: Kensington, Maryland
Weather: Freezing day and night
I’ve pursued the question of “What is rest” as I’ve traveled from Tennessee to Virginia to Maryland, and my observations are as wide-ranging as the miles I’ve covered. I think that rest is:
1) being in tune with your body enough to know when it needs sleep rather than more work or stimulation.
2) change in activity or locale, from sitting to walking, from being at home to traveling, from being alone to being with a group.
3) having a passion and desire for the work at hand.
4) being open to new ways to express your creativity.
What am I overlooking???
Today I spent time reading to my grandson the first chapter of J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter and Wendy. (That 1941 story of the mischievous elf must have been read to J.K. Rowling when she was a child.) Later we watched the movie of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. (First line in book–“Where is Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother . . .”) In addition to sharing time with a child I love, I had the sense of being transported to another time and place, of being taken outside any present worries. In other words, I was rested.
I’m surprised that I haven’t blogged about reading in relation to rest. Nothing is more restful or stimulating to me than a good book. (I’ve got three books going now.) Reading not only absorbs us with content or story, but it also has far-reaching effects as it fills our minds from other sources and brings up memories and fresh new thoughts. I was thrilled to read in Publishers Weekly (1/19/09, p. 5) about results from a recent NEA study saying that “reading is on the rise.” More people are reading! Not just reading the daily e-mails and blogs, but picking up books on paper or Kindle. We should have guessed it from the ever-expanding number of book clubs and non-traditional book distributors such as church bookstores.
Well, there you have it–in addition to all the above on my rest list, I believe rest includes the act of sustained reading. I’m energized, I’m rested, ready for the days ahead. Hope you are in the same frame.
Remember the words of James Billington, Librarian of Congress, in 2003: “Writing is exciting, and reading is essential.” Both can be the heart of rest for body, mind and spirit.
What can you do to rest this weekend?
Great post.
You know what? I know I need some R&R when I get cranky. Yep, normal things bothering me more than usual. That’s a serious sign I need rest…
So, I usually escape to beautiful Sedona, AZ for a day or two, it usually does the trick.
This weekend; however, I’m attending a writers conferece so my brain’ll be working overtime absorbing everything…but then there is Sunday…I will rest by taking a long bike ride followed by a few long naps.
Great posts this week, thanks! I hope you have some nice rest this weekend.
Mary,
I love your #4. I recently added jewelry design to my writing and photography and love the new direction. It scratches my creative itch and I feel excitement welling when I’m creating a piece.
Fun!
Your post was a good reminder that our God is creative and he infuses us with so much more creative potential than we often recognize. Thanks for saying it so I could catch that message.
Lynn, thanks for highlighting Sunday rest. I didn’t write about Sabbath rest as I intended when I started, and it’s so essential. Happy weekend and restful Sunday to you. Etta
Mary, your comment reminds me that I was once quite a seamstress, sewing for myself and our daughters. I could feel, as you say, “excitement welling” when I was creating a one-of-akind garment. Very restful!
Don’t forget to photograph all your creations. Etta
One thing I learned from reading the Old Testament that God gave even dirt a rest every 7 years (Leviticus 25:1-5.)
So one way I’ve tried to implement that favor in my own life is to try to make Sunday as restful as possible (pretty hard when your husband is a congregational leader.) I lay out my clothes the night before, prepare food for a crockpot meal that can be put in the appliance the next morning, set aside the afternoon to write encouraging notes to sick people in our congregation.
Otherwise, my work just bleeds over onto Sunday and it’s like every other day. Which, I’m pretty sure, God didn’t intend.
Latayne C Scott
http://www.latayne.com
novelmatters.blogspot.com
Etta,
Your #3 made me think about my two little boys. Sometimes they are my ‘work at hand’ and they require more effort and focus than ANYTHING else I have ever done in my whole life. It’s not always easy to stop folding laundry and race hot wheels or stack blocks just so they can knock them down over and over again. But, I know that this life is the one thing I will be judged on- not my paycheck, my education or how cute my shoes are. I’m just grateful that I have the knowledge that sometimes my ‘challenges’ are truly my blessings.
Latayne, what a wonderful idea about preparing for the Sabbath. Most of us have forgotten that little commandment, haven’t we? (Ha! Even the dirt!)
Etta, I think your #3 is related to reading. When I read the Sermon on the Mount, and see that Jesus says we will find rest with his yoke upon us (i.e. the work he has given us), it strikes me that rest is not only a cessation of activity. Perhaps it is mindfulness: doing only the task at hand, enjoying it, pouring ourselves into it, and trusting God for all that we are not doing.
So much better than only half doing the task at hand, divided by guilt and fear over all the other things we could (should) be doing.
Or am I the only one who does that?
No, Kathleen, lots of us have to deal with guilt and fear, and many of us work at too many things and for too long to hold our sense of doing what we have been called to do. I was simply trying to initiate some thinking about the balance between time and energy along with inspirational input/output.
Recently, I rediscovered the benefit of having a rhythm to my rest. I often push rest down the priority list, behind work and family, community and church. Sometimes, I push it so far down, it falls off the list. Last weekend, I “got off the carousel” long enough to go to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, with two friends from my Presbyterian church in Birmingham, Alabama. We’re part of a Spiritual Formation Group searching for ways to help our congregation experience God and the Holy Spirit. We went to five services a day, starting at 4 a.m. and ending around 8 p.m. While I typically pray throughout my day, there was something very meaningful and authentic about having these specific times set aside for God, something reminiscent of a bell chiming the hour or waves crashing against the shore. Deliberately finding time to rest throughout the day – even if only for a few minutes – calms my restless spirit and restores me.
Re: your #2 and change of activity. My doctor once commented to me that too many people treat metal tiredness with physical rest.