Rest Note

How much we crave rest, yet how little we truly rest.  A deep breath, a pause in the midst of thought, a quiet moment.  In seeking to be “productive” we look forward to what comes after – the satisfaction and release, as though if we only run fast enough, somehow we’ll get to the resting place.  But like the Red Queen in Through the Looking-Glass, it seems like it takes all the running you can do, just to keep in the same place, running after the next thing. The things may change, but the place stays the same – the place of always running. The issue is not about the things, it’s about the carrot on the stick that always says “after this, then you can rest.”

So this is a note to myself to remind myself to take rest.  What would music be if there was no silent space between the notes?  How can I appreciate life if I’m moving so fast the scenery is just a blur?  What we are really seeking is not what we’re running to get done, it’s the relief from the running itself.  And in our current world, the constant message is the lie that satisfaction will only come if you run faster, do more.  So running becomes a habit, and the habit becomes an inner state. To honor our own human dignity, to protect our wellbeing, we need to be able to break the habit and stop running.  It’s not only about the outer running from one thing to the next, but also about the inner feeling.

We need to consciously choose to give time to our inner being, to that which values a human being’s intrinsic worth, to that which puts inner consciousness above being a production machine. All systems of meditation, whatever else they do for us, honor the inner life, the soul’s value.  Even in the 1500’s, the great philosopher-essayist Montaigne was astonished to hear people complain about not getting things done, instead of being glad to be alive. To live, to appreciate life, we need to cherish our peace, our rest. We need to reclaim our lives. It is not enough to recognize that you are a spiritual being, it’s necessary to cherish, nurture, and honor that fact. This doesn’t mean that we don’t do what we need to do, but it does mean a change in attitude and actually allowing ourselves real rest that nourishes us on a deep level. We all deserve true rest every day – not in some imagined future.

© 2023 Shanti Natania Grace
Art: Woman Holding a Balance, by Johannes Vermeer

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Sabbaths: VII

Again I resume the long
lesson: how small a thing
can be pleasing, how little
in this hard world it takes
to satisfy the mind
and bring it to its rest.

Within the ongoing havoc
the woods this morning is
almost unnaturally still.
Through stalled air, unshadowed
light, a few leaves fall
of their own weight.

The sky
is gray. It begins in mist
almost at the ground
and rises forever. The trees
rise in silence almost
natural, but not quite,
almost eternal, but
not quite.

What more did I
think I wanted? Here is
what has always been.
Here is what will always
be. Even in me,
the Maker of all this
returns in rest, even
to the slightest of His works,
a yellow leaf slowly
falling, and is pleased.

  – Wendell Berry

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One must manage one’s life in order to enjoy it. I enjoy my life more than others, for the measure of enjoyment depends upon the greater or lesser attention that we lend it.
 
Especially at the moment when I perceive that my life is so brief, I try to increase its mass, I try to arrest the speed with which I grasp it, and to compensate for the haste of its ebb by my vigor in using it.
 
The shorter my possession of life, the deeper and fuller I must make it.
                                                   
          – Michel de Montaigne

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