Sabbath as resistance

During lent I am re-reading the book of this 👆🏼 title by Walter Brueggemann with a friend. So far many home truths have reasserted themselves for me, in the nick of time. One of them is that guarding time off for rest and recreation is increasingly difficult, because it’s an act of resistance in a culture where the prevailing value is about increase of production and consumption. No wonder that retaining this boundary requires a lot of effort which feels, ironically, like work. It is work. But perhaps some of the most important work we can do.

The most useful work we can do may be to break the cycle of anxious production and worry that there won’t be enough, simply by actually resting. I am finding that it’s only after rest that I can see the wood for the trees, and begin making better decisions about how I spend my time.

“There are limits to how much food Pharoah [and we] can store and consume and administer. The limit is set by the weekly work pause that breaks the production cycle. And those who participate in it break the anxiety cycle. They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competitor. And the work stoppage permits a waning of anxiety, so energy is redeployed to the neighbourhood. The odd insistence of the God of Sinai is to counter anxious productivity with committed neighbourliness. The latter practice does not produce so much; but it creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that redefines the human project.” (Brueggemann Sabbath as Resistance Louisville, KT: John Knox Press, 2014 p.27-28)

All of this is resonating a lot for me. I am seeking to re-learn from a past mistress of proper rest how to really REST!

Rest & Recreation

I love spending time with artists and creative people of all sorts. I find their work so inspiring. And mostly it’s there to be lived or experienced, which is an extraordinary gift. Experiencing art of any sort always seems to inspire creativity in me, which is often deeply satisfying in a way I can’t quite explain.

This week I had the delight of seeing Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet, which sparked a lot of wondering and ideas, as well as reminding me of the striking beauty of light and shadow.

Then I’ve been reading about rest and sabbath as I land finally on a very long-awaited day off today. In this moment of stillness, invited by the slowing of a rest day, my eye caught the pattern of shadows on the wall as the trees were being blown about. I decided to film them, suddenly realising in so doing that in our urban location some massive and possibly awful thing is happening (or maybe many awful things), judging by the number of sirens in the background. I notice these, offer my stillness as some kind of prayer, and return to relishing the moment; the wind, the autumn leaves, the unseasonal warmth which invites my sitting outside.

Watching this back reminds me of Walter Brueggeman’s concept of “sabbath as resistance”. The idea that to be still and rest is a form of protest against the drivenness of our culture.

My mini odyssey of creativity today has led me via the wonderful Patrick Shen’s Notes from the Shed https://www.patreon.com/posts/90395833?utm_campaign=postshare_fan to the photography of Fan Ho today. Such beauty: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/dec/09/the-cartier-bresson-of-the-east-fan-hos-hong-kong-in-pictures

I receive Patrick Shen’s Patreon as I was so struck by his film In Pursuit of Silence (2015) when I saw it at the Sheffield Doc Fest some years ago. I have since rewatched it and shared it with many others.

I recently looked him up and discovered he is trying to find a different way of making his art that is less driven by the capitalist machinery that I think is threatening to suffocate and stifle creativity in all of us now. So I decided to support him with a tiny but regular gift on Patreon. Already this is proving life giving to me, looking at his short film sketches and following links to the things inspiring his creativity. There is a lot of resonance for me. And an invitation to deepen my contemplative practice myself. And to continue exploring my own creativity.

I notice that all these wonderful life giving things occur to me in moments of rest and recreation. Much though I love my work (and recognise the huge privilege of loving what you do), I am reminded that rest and recreation are what restores me and gives me what I need for life. Without this kind of inspiration, the quality of my work would suffer as much as I would. But even if the quality of my work didn’t suffer, I want the fact that I would and those around me would to be enough to remind me to slow, rest, recreate. (Note to self.)

A song of quiet trust

A friend shared a vision they had from God, which reminded me of this today. A lovely invitation to deep rest. I listened to the music below and reread the ancient poem below that and dwelt with that image of the weaned child. Wonderful.

This is my favourite recording of Spiegel im Spiegel (« Mirror in the Mirror ») by Arvo Pärt, performed with such brave vulnerability by Daniel Hope. Most violinists would add vibrato to make it sound professional. But he captures the simplicity and vulnerability of this music-prayer beautifully: https://youtu.be/QqmZxtrUVK8

Psalm 131

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvellous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time on and forevermore.