Sabbath-keeping

My new job is exciting and rewarding, but also challenging and incredibly demanding. The children thrill me when they grasp a new concept, amuse me with their anecdotes- and often sadden me when they share their feelings about their lives. 

My body-clock is still struggling with being awake and alert by 6.30am and out of the house inside 45 minutes, with a 10 mile commute on very busy roads, a long working day, and back home in the rush hour, getting in around 6pm. Fortunately it is only two days a week -but I am not as young as I used to be. Thursday and Friday nights I am utterly drained! Bob has been so supportive, and has the evening meal underway when I get home.  

We try to have a slower start on Saturdays, but often there are things to prepare for church, and usually a few domestic chores. I feel more relaxed if I know that by Saturday night I am prepared for Monday and the week ahead. Even though Sunday has its busy moments, with two church services, I still like to make sure there is time and space for peace and relaxation. As a child, my parents had a 'no schoolwork on a Sunday' rule - and I have endeavoured to keep to that all my life, even when doing 5 days a week in the classroom.

In "The Songlines", Bruce Chatwin, the travel writer, tells of “a white explorer in Africa, who, anxious to press ahead with his journey, paid his porters for a series of forced marches. But they, almost within reach of their destination, set down their bundles and refused to budge. No amount of extra payment would convince them otherwise. They said they had to wait for their souls to catch up."

Whether or not you are a person of faith, whether or not you attend church - I still believe that a Sabbath, a rest day, is essential to the well-being of every person on the planet. Sunday may not be the day for you [Bob usually takes most of his Sabbath rest on a Tuesday] but I hope that you are able to find time and space each week to enable your body to rest, and your soul to catch up.