MORE THOUGHTS ON MOVING FORWARD
I wanted to leave some thoughts and a continuation of practical ideas I expressed earlier this week about moving forward through difficult times. When I was relatively new to the Bay area of California a few years back, I got invited to a special group meant for spiritual leaders and community activists. The woman who led it conveyed one core idea in her program: that social justice types are poor with our self-care. We are so passionate about the issues we fight for that we often burn out. To make it worse, when whatever that justice struggle is encounters failure, some people take it really hard and really person, and their mental and emotional health suffers.
Her work with us was to create a sacred space where we could rest, sleep, walk labyrinths, meditate to sacred harp music, and eat simple but nourishing food. This program was not the first time I was made aware of my own need to balance my self-care with serving humanity in my sense of call. When I went to seminary, two professors arranged a trip to a monastery on the Hudson River. Though I was very Protestant then, I was spiritually open. I wanted to understand how various iterations of Christianity did what they did to nourish their people with spirituality. So I discovered the power of the Psalter, the blessing of daily Eucharist, and sacred conversations with holy men who devoted themselves to Christian hospitality so the rest of us could find ourselves.
I have been blessed over my life thus far and my career to have had these experiences. They are the anchors I return to when times seem out of joint. When the person I believe to be the wrong leader for my country gets elected. When people around me are freaking out left and right because we don’t even know exactly what things mean anymore.
These experiences and people taught me that there is such a thing as sacred rest—what two of the three Abrahamic traditions call a Sabbath. In my personal life, I can't focus well if I get so caught up in serving, doing, fighting, whatever. I can’t even do my spiritual practices competently. In short, losing sight of this diminishes my quality of life.
My hope for folx is that, regardless of how we all do it, we all find those places to rest and recipe during this time.
Be blessed, and get good rest out there.
