Sabbath: Finding Time

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted on this blog.

 

The next section of Sabbath by Wayne Muller, I’m just going to share some quotes that I enjoyed.

All these “lost” values are human qualities that require time.  Honesty, courage, kindness,civility, wisdom, compassion – these can only be nourished in the soil of time and attention and need experience and practice to come to harvest. – page 98

Good citizenship requires time to listen to the fears and dreams of our neighbors, to care for our poor and hungry, to build and run good wholesome schools and hospitals.  Mark the steady decline in party membership, voter tallies, attendance at public meetings and school boards. – page 100

Finally, in the 1960s and 1970s mass amusements – notably television – began their domination of leisure time.  Passive culture consumption began to replace traditional activities.  Time for family, loved ones and community activities was no longer perceived as being as valuable as what one could buy with money.  - page 106

 

This next passage really hit me in light of the oil spill in the US. 

“Yet every time someone gets cancer, the G.D.P. goes up.  Every time an infant dies, the G.D.P. rises.  A drive-by shooting improves the economy by $20,750.  If the victim dies, and there is a murder trial, the benefit to the economy leaps to well over $100,000.  An oil tanker spill can contribute between five and twenty million dollars of “growth”; the benefits of an airline crash or terrorist bombing can be far greater.” – page 111

“A true marriage of money and time honors the value of both.  Both time and money are essential commodities for building a just and healthy world.  But during Sabbath, we specifically honor those precious things – courage, creativity, wisdom, peace, kindness, and delight – that grow only in the soil of time.” – page 116

So we have to make time for each other, to play, to teach, to just be together.  I am finding that as many of us enter this busy time of year surrounding Christmas that this is becoming more and more important to me.  I really want to carve out time for my family and for our close friends.

How does this work into my family’s Sabbath?  I’m gonna play games with the kids!  I’ll color with them.  I’ll read to them.  I’ll take the time to teach them virtues and precepts in Scripture.

 

Still diggin',