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Quote #425 - Sacred Rest

30 Aug, 2010

"Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected."

George Macdonald


"If I get to pick what I want to do, then it's play...if someone else tells me that I have to do it, then it's work."

Patricia Nourot



In this week before the celebration of Labor, in this last week of summer before the school year begins--the first school year of over 20 where the only child in school is far, far away, and still it always feels like the beginning of the new year to me--I am trying to cultivate play and idleness. You lose the touch in the city, in the chaos of parenting, friending, surviving, thriving, in the chaos of living multiple artistic lives.

But here in the country, by the lake, in this easy and welcoming house, it comes back haltingly. We lost power yesterday, and it was a gift of sorts: we talked, we read, we went swimming. Rest is sacred, because it is good for the soul.