Well, over the Christmas holidays we got a little bit away from the minimal Sabbath practices I had started for our family. I am hoping that blogging about the remainder of the book by Wayne Muller that I can jog my memory and my actions. Christmas fell on Saturday this year and so I didn’t serve our soup and crisp. I’m hoping to pick that up again on the first of January.
Now on to the section called Happiness.
There are many verses in the Bible that talk about having joy and happiness. God doesn’t want His people to be glum. However, happiness takes time. This comes from page 124:
Happiness grows only in the sweet soil of time. As our time is eaten away by speed and overwork, we are less available to be surprised by joy, a sunset, a kind word,an unplanned game of tag with a child,a warm loaf of bread from the oven. But for all our striving and accomplishment, our underlying need for happiness does not withdraw and disappear. So we pursue happiness on the run, trying to make our lives more and more efficient, squeezing every task into tighter increments, hoping to somehow “get” our happiness when we are able to fit it in.
and from page 126:
The more hurried and rushed we are, the more we are willing to trade happiness for desire – and, over time, the less we are able to discern the difference between the two.
I loved the chapter on happiness. I loved the suggestions of ways to stop and feel and be. Take time to be thankful. Go window shopping and just enjoy the pretty and expensive things you see. Create a morning ritual – like reading in bed in the morning. Take off your shoes and just feel, really feel, the ground. These are things to add to my Sabbath list. I love it.
Still diggin',
No comments:
Post a Comment