Sweetness and Slowness

Sabbath is getting media play.

That, in itself, is news.

I mean, I can see us showing interest in “sabbath” if there is the promise of some kind of deliverable.  You know, I will pause (or stop or rest or reflect) if (and only if) it makes me a better person, or makes me more productive, or makes me more balanced, or makes me a better person of faith, etc. . .  However.  To Pause, just to pause?  Well. . .what’s the point in that?

I read about the book The Sabbath World (Judith Shulevitz) on my iphone, while waiting for the ferry from Anacortes (Washington) to Guemes island (in the San Juans).  Yes, I could call that ironic. . .or slightly disturbed.  (I love the Yogi Berra line, “We’re lost, but we’re making good time.”)

I say I want to be “off the grid,” but apparently not enough that I can’t give up my addiction to access.  Which makes me wonder. . .

When did the need for 24 / 7 availability work its way into our psychic DNA?  And is it reversible?

And why, in heaven’s name, do we take and use our cell phones in public restrooms?  (But that’s a whole other story. . .)

And, if we are not available, why do we feel so irresponsible?

I have no answers to these questions. . .but I do have a recommendation for my day.  It’s from The Sabbath World.

“What if you wanted to revive something like the Sabbath today?

What if you coveted some of that sweetness and slowness and went looking for ways to get it?”

Judith Shulevitz

In the spirit of the quote. . .I love this piece a Sabbath Moment friend sent to me. . .

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years.  I love ice cream.  It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process.  The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker.  If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now…go on and have a nice day.  Do something you WANT to…not something on your SHOULD DO list.

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, whom would you call and what would you say?   And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?  Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night?  Do you run through each day on the fly?

When you ask ‘How are you?’  Do you hear the reply?  When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?

Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see her sorrow?  Ever lost touch?  Let a good friendship die?  Just call to say ‘Hi’?  When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away…. Life is not a race. Take it slower.  Hear the music before the song is over.