Recess

and Rest

I try to sit each day, in my case early morning, and contemplate. The quiet renews my spirit and gives me peace in the midst of our troubled world.

This morning I struggled. As I closed my eyes, rather than quiet, the voices began… My friend Tony Campolo described how when he tried to silence his mind, “the animals arrived…” Remember the song, “Who let the dogs out?”

Rather than focus my mind, I was drawn in many directions: I need to visit an ailing friend. The garden needs watering. I have to make an appointment with the doctor. Rather than a symphony of sound, it was a cacophony of cries.

Often my list-making discipline (addiction) brings both order and even modest pleasure as I check off major and minor tasks. Ironically, one of my 2026 resolutions was inspired by my grandmother in church years ago, “Sit still, David.” A journal on my desk is a visual reminder to reflect and be still. Sadly, it sits still more than I do

Then a happy thought burst into my clattering brain. I was sitting in my grade school classroom as a boy watching the clock. Remember those agonizing minutes?

Finally, the bell rang and it as time for “recess.” Joy returned to my day and out we went to the school yard to play! I have written before in this column about my mother telling me to “go outside and play,” which not only aided her sanity, but has enriched and saved my life over the years.

The same euphoria came as the bell rang and the school day, week, and year ended.

But today even my daily garden meditation time feels like work.

In the Hebrew Bible Genesis stories, God is very busy creating. Days must have felt like eons. And then…on the 7^th Day, God rested. Usually we interpret “rest” as simply not working. Years ago, I read a wonderful little book, The Sabbath, by the great Jewish scholar, Abraham Joshua Heschel.

He points out that the Hebrew word for rest is “מְנוּחָה” (Menuchah) and has a deeper meaning. On the 7^th day he suggests we are to look back over the creation with gratitude and savor its goodness. He speaks of Sabbath as the “crown not the caboose” of creation.

Yes, planting, cultivating, watering, and weeding are important, but we need to regularly enjoy and celebrate life itself. The bible uses the phrase “Behold and see…” 1500 times. God is saying “Pay attention!” When we do, we are blessed with real rest and renewal.

In Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations this week, the theme has been contemplation. I close with his words of encouragement.

“The real gift of contemplative practice is to be happy and content, even while we are simply sitting on the porch, looking at a rock, or benevolently gazing at anything in its ordinariness. When we can see, accept, and say that every single act of creation is “just this,” we allow it to work its wonder on us.

So go learn, enjoy, and rest in inner contentment and positivity—a full reservoir of fresh water, both before what feels like success and after what we might experience as failure. Then we have the treasure that no one can take from us or give to us. We will be ready to be captured by many moments of awe—and we will be capable of the surrender that brings both foundational union and joy.

Remember, the whole process most often begins by one, long, relished moment of awe, one fully sincere moment of beholding anything and saying, “Just this!” And, as Isaiah promised, we will know that every moment is shouting, “I am here! I am here!”

The bell is ringing…

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