In my office the other day, two church members asked about the boat on my table. I told them it was a gift from a seminary classmate, a reminder of the work and teaching of our professor, Kirk Jones, author of Rest in the Storm: Self-Care Strategies for Clergy and other Caregivers. He always reminded us that Jesus went to the back of the boat and took a nap.
Not surprisingly, I could not find an image of Jesus resting. Preaching from the boat, yes. Calming the storm, yes. Walking on water? Oh, my, yes! But no one seems to want to picture Jesus taking his rest.
In this week that looks unlikely to hold a complete day off, I am pondering renewal. List four ways you like to relax or give yourself a break. Then name a fifth, something you’ve never been able to do, a self-care dream.
WOW! Here’s one I can relate to!
Four ways I like to relax or give myself a break:
- READ READ READ – but not textbooks, articles in a “scholarly, peer-reviewed journal” (gag me!) or anything that remotely relates to writing a paper. Or a sermon. Call it what you want – poetry, fantasy or biography – it’s “brain candy” that takes me someplace else, if only for a few minutes!
- Photography. Occasionally I feel like I have a good lens on the world. At the moment, my camera needs repair, so I don’t have an outlet for this one.
- Music. At my piano, just tickling the ivories. Preferably with no one in the house so that I can play and sing without feeling like I have more than an “Audience of One.”
- The Ultimate Chill Pill: Hammock. Ice Tea. Ceiling Fan. Birds singing. (But NOT in January!)
And the fifth, a self-care dream:
Oh please. If there is someone who is looking for a worthy cause and would fund it – a maid or a house cleaner or whatever is PC these days! Someone to pick up and do the things that I look around and see when I am studying or trying to relax. You know – the “chores” that I never get to and probably have my great-grandmother spinning in her grave. This more than anything makes it hard for me to chill out at home.
I haven’t figured out how to put that last one on my wish list on Froogle or Amazon, though…
From our chaos to yours…
Deb
An Unfinished Symphony 