The Rhythm of Work and Rest

Once a month, for two days, I travel to a house in the city where I get to be a part of training new spiritual directors. I spend those days listening, facilitating conversations, and learning alongside others. It is beautiful and good. And there is just a different kind of tired that hits after these days. 

I actually started noticing it Friday as I was driving home from downtown. If you live around Tulsa, you know that so many of our roads are under construction. And during rush hour, the impact of that construction is so evident. People are tired. They want to get home or wherever they are headed, and they seem to be in a hurry. More than once, I found myself offering up a quick prayer for protection as drivers rapidly wove in and out of traffic to gain two car lengths. 

I could feel tears coming to the surface. I could feel my body trying to hold it together until I made it home. I wanted to find more comfortable clothes and fully exhale. I wanted to be out of the car. I wanted to be home. 

I didn't use to be very good at paying attention to my body when it was tired. I actually didn't even know this about myself until I took a sabbatical a few years ago. It was during that year that I realized I hadn't been listening to my body for a long time. I just kept pushing through. Things needed to get done, and so I just figured out how to make that happen. When I slowed down for sabbatical, my body basically freaked out and said, "Thank goodness you are finally listening." 

Now, I have some rhythms in place that help me pay attention to my body and make sure I prioritize rest.

First, I have a regular, weekly Sabbath practice. I do some prep work the day before to ensure that I can really lean into that weekly rest. That looks, for me, like finishing up any chores that need tending so I can set the mental load of those tasks down. My body is more fully at rest when the spaces around me are clean. This is imperfect because I live with other people, but I do what I need to do to be ok with whatever messes are made in that 24 hours. 

It also looks like making sure there is food in the fridge that is ready to heat up and eat. I choose not to cook on the Sabbath, not because I think you shouldn't, but because it's not that fun for me and I don't want to have to think about it for one day of the week. 

On this day, we attend church and worship in community. We spend time together as a family eating and sometimes playing games. I often read a book or watch a movie. Some parts of this weekly routine are always the same; other parts change for various reasons, but for me, this weekly practice of trusting that I can set aside my work and enjoy God's rest is a gift. 

I also have really practical rhythms for scheduling my calendar. For instance, I know that these two days I am involved with The School of Spiritual Direction each month require a different kind of recovery time for my body. I know that I need three days before I jump back into my normal schedule. So, I don't typically schedule events on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday following a two-day intensive. 

Another thing that helps me is thinking preemptively about my calendar. Before I add things to my schedule, I weigh out if I really have the capacity to say yes. An event scheduled for one hour on my calendar may actually take two hours of my time if I'm driving 30 minutes each way. Other events, like speaking at a conference, might be agreeing to speak for 1 hour, but the preparation for that 1 hour might be 30 or more hours of research and writing. Those 30 hours also need to fit into my calendar. I can't just hope that they'll fit into whatever gaps are left over. 

We all experience tiredness in our bodies in different ways. I happen to have some autoimmune challenges that make my recovery take longer. I know this is true, and I allow for that on my calendar. I don't share these things with you to suggest you should do the same, but rather as an invitation to pay attention to your regular rhythms of rest. Do you have some? Are you following them? Do they need to be revamped? 

Rest and work have been woven together since the beginning of the story. God intended for us to do both.

~  Melissa