Samain Thanksgiving Moon
The sabbath as a day of rest fascinates me. It seems, in our ramped up and goal oriented culture, it’s easy to lose sight of truly important matters: family, inner work, reading in a spiritual or religious tradition that works for you, meditation.
While investigating a Reconstructionist Judaism understanding of the sabbath, I came across an idea I’d missed in previous study. The sabbath is not a day set aside from work, though it is that; but, more specifically, it is a day set aside from creation. On the sabbath we rest from making, from shaping, from forming. Why? Well, of course, there’s the 7th day in the Genesis account of creation. There’s also the notion of not arrogating to ourselves the creative power of the universe. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t create. It means we should be clear about the limits of our creative abilities. Taking a day off puts a clear barrier between us and a life submerged in effort.
I’m easing into this starting this week. Therefore, this post, though an act of creation, is a signal not to expect a post from me anymore on Saturday mornings or during the day. If I make a Saturday post, it will be after sundown when the sabbath ends.
So next week, no Saturday morning post. We’ll see how this experiment goes.
