Sabbath

Roadside on the Million Dollar Highway, from Ouray to Silverton, CO.

Long time no post, #amirite?

As you've potentially gathered, I'm a full time teacher and full time graduate student, which means I spend about 80 hours a week doing something English and/or education related.

And, as you hopefully realize, it's exhausting.

The biggest upside of teaching is having summers off, which has given me plenty of opportunities to rest, rejuvenate, and [finally] log back on to this blog.

This post, titled "Sabbath," is a draft lying around from March 2017, and I finally have a moment to sit down and write about that. now is the moment I'm choosing to finally sit and write about this.

If you're unfamiliar with Christianity or Judaism, the concept of "Sabbath" may be slightly foreign to you. It shares a root with "sabbatical," and comes from šāḇaṯ, which means ‘to rest.’ in Hebrew (thanks, Google, for that history.)

Sometime in March, I went on a Saturday climbing trip with a few friends (one of whom is a teacher, the other of whom practices Judaism) and the discussion rotated around to the idea of rest.

All three of us are familiar with the idea of Sabbath as a day of rest, and I started considering when the practice of taking a day of rest went by the wayside.

Initially, the Sabbath was created as a day of rest to reflect how God rested on the seventh day of creation, which is a pretty cool idea. Taking a day to rest, pause and reflect sounds like a great idea in the hustle and bustle world of 2017.

Which is why, in March, I started observing Saturday as my Sabbath. I would wake up, go to yoga, then go home and do everything or anything except grad school homework or grading papers. And, magically, it didn't make it any more difficult to get my work done by the times I needed to have it done.

I pushed all my essay grading to one weekend day, and it made me focus better. I held on to weekday nights for my grad school homework, which wasn't much of an issue when I was able to sit down and do it while eating dinner.

By prioritizing rest and carving out a full day of my week FOR rest, I was able to manage my time and work more efficiently. 

I'm not sure what my Sabbath is going to look like this school year. For one thing, I want to prioritize travel and getting into nature. It's my goal to spend at least two weekends of every month somewhere outside of Phoenix, but in all reality--I'll be happy if I make it out of the city at least one weekend every month.

This year is also different because I now have a boyfriend, and while I want to say that won't affect my Sabbath, it probably will. He's a teacher, and we're going to have to discuss our working habits so we can plan time to work, grade, and do everything else while also finding time to spend together.

Thankfully, he loves Jesus and also seems to be on board with the idea of observing Sabbath as a day of rest, so this should be a great thing for both of us in our busy schedules.