A sabbath of sorts...

I'm on holiday today. Not just a day off from work, but a day off from LIFE. Or the craziness, anyway, that's been my life for the past five or six weeks.

I looked at my calendar the other night and realized that, since AUGUST 30, I've not had one weeknight or Saturday at home. Even for me, that's a little too much. Not that I don't, for the most part, enjoy football games and volleyball games and board meetings and getting my hair cut and visiting with family and friends and...all that other stuff. I love my life and want to wring every bit of "living" out of it that I can, but I've been feeling, for the past few days, that living has wrung the life out of me.

So, today I've uploaded several hundred photos from my camera, finished a printing job I'd started 3 weeks ago, caught up on some emails, did some more research on intentional community and new monasticism, wrote a long-overdue letter to a friend in need of encouragement, decluttered the kitchen and living room, washed 3 loads of laundry...and I actually slept almost 8 hours last night, except for a few minor cat-dancing-on-my-head interruptions in the middle of the night. I still have the remainders of 4 weeks of laundry to fold and put away (it's going to be nice not living out of the laundry basket for awhile!) and a lot of dusting and vacuuming to do, but I've made some progress today. And I've done it at my own pace, without feeling there's an invisible stopwatch hanging over my head.

All of that may not seem either like a holiday OR a sabbath to anyone else, but it has been for me. There's something peaceful and holy about putting your house in order...and listening to your mind and body when they're screaming for a break from the daily insanity of life.

And, tonight, I get to hang out with a bunch of great friends who make me laugh...and I'll be mentally rested and ready to laugh again. Life is good.