Saturday Sabbath - Finding Joy Being Present

Being connected can mean a million different things and look a million different ways. We are able to be “connected” more than ever these days with the ever-growing accessibility to technology, social media and information endlessly at our fingertips. This creates what seems like a good thing and in ways, it absolutely is. We have the ability to talk with friends and family who live hundreds of miles away. Look up and find the best Mexican restaurant or coolest coffee shop anywhere we go in a matter of seconds. We are no longer tied to an office space with a computer plugged into a wall for a workspace but can now wirelessly connect and be productive just about anywhere.

It’s an interesting thing, productivity. Sometimes I find that personally, I can be the least productive when I have the most time. It’s like I don’t know what to do with all this time I’m not used to having. The past couple of weeks at work have been super slow, slower than I’ve ever experienced. We are going through a restructure which means jobs shifting, teams sunsetting and new ones being created. In all of this, I am getting a new role which is great, and I’m absolutely stoked for a new challenge and opportunity to learn. But as my old work is on pause due to all of these changes and my new role isn’t quite ready for me yet, it’s put me in this position of feeling like I’m in limbo, unsure of what I even should even be doing. I’m the type of gal that absolutely thrives with a packed schedule. It’s exciting to me. Looking at all the things I have going on in a day or week, the people I get to see, mapping it out, the rush to get X project done in X amount of time because that’s all I have. It’s like a challenge that can be totally chaotic but fun at the same time. What usually happens though is, I will get into these rhythms of go go go, do do do, work work work and when a break finally does come, I have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. I’m unable to even sit still.

Physics, a subject I was never stellar at in school. Okay by that I mean I pleaded with my high school teacher to just give me the B- so I could keep my honors credibility and not have to take this class ever again. Then in college, I went to a Jesuit school where part of their values is to be a “well-rounded scholar” not focusing too much on just your major but to get a diverse experience of all subjects. This is code for, you’re going to have a ton of prereqs and required classes before even stepping foot into your major courses and by then it will be the second semester of your junior year. What this also meant was I had to again look science in the face and take a physics course. Thankfully, the science department probably caught on a long time ago that some people and science just don’t click (aka me) and decided to offer some “real-life experience” courses that fulfills the credit. This meant, science through the lens of things like colors, clouds and for me, I chose forensics. It would not have been my first choice, (I for sure would have gone with clouds) but it worked best with my schedule and my advisor said I couldn’t put it off any longer.

Anyway, back to why I actually brought up Physics in the first place… something I do remember is learning about the laws of Motion from that Newton guy. One of them stating, what is in motion, stays in motion and what is at rest, stays at rest. In my state of busyness, I am constantly in motion. Going from place to place, moving from one task and jumping right into the next. Since I am in this state of motion constantly, it makes it really difficult for me to be at rest. And I’m not talking just physically. I’m talking about mentally and emotionally too. It’s difficult to slow a busy mind that’s always racing and even more difficult to tune into a heart that hasn’t had the space to feel anything besides focusing on getting through the next task. What I often forget though, is the second part to that law of motion: what is at rest or in motion will remain at rest or keep moving unless it is acted upon by a force. This force takes an intentional decision, a choice to be made, and for me that is to stop being in motion and rest. It is not something I choose easily or even would choose on my own if I wasn’t made to need rest and would literally die without it.

This morning I was reminded of how beautiful that rest can be. As I sat down to read the Word, do some journaling and enjoy a piping hot cup of light roast coffee (I take a strong stance that light roast is the best roast) I took a deep, intentional breath for what felt the first time in days.

I was once again reminded of how refreshing it is to say no to an agenda, to a task, to errands, to updating social media, checking my email, even saying no to putting away that dirty dish or doing another load of laundry. I felt relieved of expectations from work, family, friends, shoot the entire world it feels like sometimes. Even more, the constant expectations I put on myself. This my friends, is the beauty of Sabbath. It is a day where anything that starts with “I should” can be put on hold. It can wait until tomorrow or later in the week. Not everything has to get done this minute, this instance. The physical world takes rest (insert nighttime), God took rest of the 7th day. We are humans that were made to need rest. While, it’s not an easy choice to make and can quite honestly even feel uncomfortable or selfish at times. But I fully encourage you make a choice. To be intentional and give your mind, body and soul the rest you fully deserve. The world can wait, that task can wait. Do something for you and only you just because. Now take a deep breath, be joyfully present with yourself and rest.

MW