FEELING GREAT
THE MODERN SABBATH
Absolutely, believes Lynne M. Baab,
author of Sabbath Keeping: Finding
Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest.
“The meaning of the word Sabbath is
‘stop, cease, desist, pause, rest,’ ” she
points out. “The Sabbath is a concrete, practical, doable way to build
rest into our schedules.”
For Baab, it’s not as important
which day of the week serves as the
day of rest. What matters most are
the emotional and spiritual effects
of taking a break from work. Baab
recommends starting small, by choosing one task (e-mail, say, or laundry)
to ignore for a full 24 hours. Taking
a whole day is best, she says, but
even an afternoon away from the full
to-do list can do you good. As much
as I long for the ancient, sundown-to-sundown concept of Sabbath, this
advice comes as a relief to me.
Because after sending my kids to
school in dirty uniforms two Mondays
in a row I finally concluded that Sunday evening really, really needs to
include at least one load of laundry.
(Do it once and you’re one of those
flaky moms who can’t quite get it
together; do it routinely and you’re just
a loser.) Allowing a full 24 hours for
contemplation and relaxation might
have to wait till I get the hang of this
Sabbath thing a little better.
At some point I hope I can learn to
squeeze what must be done into six
days and to jettison altogether what
isn’t crucial, so I can have both a day of
rest and a week that doesn’t begin in
a frenzy. After all, it’s pointless to go to
bed all rested and happy on Sunday
night if it means turning into a harpy
from hell on Monday morning because
the lunches aren’t made and the
permission slip hasn’t reappeared.
But since even a half-day Sabbath
can be useful, according to Baab, I can
still use Sunday night to pull myself
together for Monday. And, it turns out,
my Monopoly game with Joe was about
right for a beginner. And so was the
coffee date I had with a friend the next
rainy Sunday. And so was the walk I
took around a nearby lake the Sunday
after that. So what if it wasn’t a whole
day away from obligations? The lake
was so beautiful. I came home exultant.
And each Monday I started the workweek feeling as though I’d actually had
a break from the week before.
Last Sunday, however, I wanted to
try something more obviously restful.
So I stretched out on the couch with
a book, a luxury that momentarily felt
almost sinful in the middle of the day.
Then I promptly compounded the evil
of idleness by falling asleep. When I
opened my eyes, Joe was standing
there, looking down at me.
“Mom?”
“Hmm? ” My eyes were already fluttering closed again.
“Mom!”
“Hmm? ”
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
A pause, while Joe contemplated
this unfamiliar idea. “Are you sick?”
In fact, I was the exact opposite of
sick—I was peaceful, I was awash in
peacefulness—but that’s a hard feeling to articulate, and not only because
I’m not exactly familiar with it. It’s just
that before the words could form on my
tongue, I was already asleep again.
And it was heaven.
Lazy Sunday
LHJ READERS DESCRIBE THEIR IDEAL DAY OF REST
“I start with a cup of tea, brewed in
a teapot and poured into a china
cup. I stir in cream and sugar then
gaze out a window, sipping and
savoring. Anything that happens
after that is bound to be good.
Lisa Lessley Briscoe
Portland, Oregon
I PULL OUT THE BIG SUITCASE
WITH THE BROKEN ZIPPER
THAT STORES THE MEMORIES
OF MY YOUTH, AND LOOK
THROUGH THE PHOTOS.
Suzanne Welker
Circleville, Ohio
A Sunday-afternoon nap erases the whole week’s worth of fatigue and stress.
Diane Loupe, Decatur, Georgia
I DON’T GET A LOT OF
FACE-TO-FACE TIME WITH
MY FRIENDS. TO JUST SIT
ACROSS FROM ONE
ANOTHER AND TALK IS
SOMETHING I CHERISH.
Christine Ives
Morrison, Colorado
I go for a walk. I find that wherever
I’m walking, down a forest path or in
a cityscape, I’m drawn away from
my own thinking t where I’m simply e from that place I f Jennifer Gr Groneberg Polson, Montana “o a peaceful place xperiencing. And eel restored. af
LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL
JUNE 09
