Seeking to do some resting up today... a mini retreat/ sabbatical... starting by thinking about the Sabbath with help from Michael Strassfeld, A Book of Life.
He writes:
Shabbat is a day to stand in awe of the Creator and Her Creation, calling on us not just to rest, but also to live a simpler life.
It is a time not just to step away from the 'rat race', but also from a consumer culture with its visions of unlimited acquisition.
As we rest, our tired world rests.
We all stand a little closer to a garden, a place of nakedness rather than possessions, a place of being rather than owning.
More from The Sabbath, by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space.
Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.
Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul.
The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else.
Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.
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