Soaking it up

     For so many years,  John worked very, very hard as a surgeon----long hours, lots of tension, always on call, people's lives in his hands.   He did take some time to play, and enjoy vacations with the family.  But now, having lived more than seventy years on this planet,  he finally has time to live the wise Jewish sage Abraham Heschel's words: "Just to live is holy.   Just to BE is a blessing."

     So here is John,  experiencing the blessing of being.   It could just as well have been a picture of me too, but I was the one with the camera this time.  We both love luxuriating in the noon day sun on a winter day in Sedona,  soaking in all the beauty of sky and earth,  listening to the many birds that live in the pine trees around our house.   Every now and then,  their singing and chirping is punctuated with the whir of hummingbird wings as one of several that live nearby visits the feeder I hang on the porch.   The distinctive cry of a quail in the neighbor's yard adds to the music of nature.  The sun's warmth is gentle and healing, and as we soak it all in,  we are so grateful for a time like this in our lives.  I admit, however, to a tiny twinge of guilt once in a great while, probably from my upbringing, in which being productive(always) was highly valued, and sitting around doing nothing was not.

      My Mom used to sing a little ditty when I was a girl, usually when she observed someone she thought should be working. "O lazy bones, sittin' in the sun, how d'ya ever 'spec to get a day's work done?"   Now a good work ethic is a fine thing, but my opinion is that in the circles of people in which I have lived,  it is way overdone.   The healthy balance between work and play, business and leisure, is just not there.  Our society has one of the lowest number of vacation days for the average worker in the industrial nations of the world.  Many people work way beyond the standard forty hour work week.  You can see the toll it takes in people's lives in the form of stress related mental and physical illness,  strained relationships, and harried life style.  Is this the best we can do?  

      Once again, I recall Abraham Heschel's wisdom; "It is not so much that the Jews have kept the sabbath as that the sabbath has kept the Jews."  Human beings need days regularly  in which to lay aside their work, and enjoy just being,  soaking in all the goodness of life, taking time to consciously cultivate their souls, their relationships, and their connection with creation and the Creator of this marvelous world. 

     I think it is interesting that observing Sabbath time is one of the "Big Ten" commandments.  We put ourselves in peril when we fail to regularly take a day of rest and re-creation.

 May you enjoy the gift of Life more and more as you find ways to "Soak it up."