A sabbath for my soul

Do you want to know what I have been ‘doing’ during my enforced sabbatical from work? I have been having the kind of Sabbath that the ancient Israelites gave their harvesting land every seven years. They allowed the land to go ‘fallow’. Meaning that they gave the land a rest from being ‘productive’ and allowed it to simply ‘be’. This simple ‘being’ is mandated in the Torah because the divine wisdom obviously knew about the human tendency to drive for productivity at all costs, all the time. It also knew how counterproductive this drive can be.

Treat the land as you would treat yourself: We are mandated to rest every seven days and all work is prohibited. There are 52 of these mandated rest days every year, along with the additional mandated rest days during festival times. During these days we are mandated to eat, drink and be merry. To actually connect with our loved ones, to listen, to get to know who we are and who they are, each week. To simply be together and be with ourselves.

How revolutionary. And how necessary.

So what is the purpose behind this rest from activity? One thing that I am learning is that, if we define ourselves as human doings and not human beings then we can go to our graves without ever really meeting ourselves.

The problem we face is that in the world in which we live, we are so used to assigning value, only to what it is that we are doing — ‘what do you do?’ Is the question you will most often be asked. And you will learn to define yourself and your worth based on the perceived ‘quality’ of your answer to that question. ‘How impressive am I?’ We will ask ourselves. ‘How well do I compare with my peers?’ Might be another.

So what should guide me in my quest to ‘be’ rather than simply to ‘do’ in this Sabbatical year? I have found Amy Johnson’s work to be profoundly helpful in this regard. When I lose sleep as a result of another round of self-flagellation for not ‘doing’ sufficiently, I come back to her distinction between the two ‘voices in my head’ which guide me down opposite paths. I offer a simple comparison, in the hope that you will chose the road less travelled, as I have.

My humble suggestion would be to take any thinking that you have about goals, plans and career development and filter them through this prism. The likelihood is that decisions made as a result of random thought will lead you down one path, whilst those made from inner wisdom will allow you to be who you were meant to be, if only you allowed yourself to.