We are having a very unexpected snow day, this last week of March. Despite the fact that I would love to be enjoying the warm sunshine of spring, I needed this snow day a lot. I am spent. I am just about in my third trimester of pregnancy and really feel like there is something sucking the life out of me. I am plain old tired.
So, when my husband asked me this morning what my plans were for the day and if he needed to shovel the driveway right away I thought, dear God please don’t. Let us have to stay home all day, skype with family & friends, eat the leftovers in the fridge, read our books, and just get a real snow day.
A snow day is maybe as good as I’ll ever get at observing the sabbath. For practicing Jews, the sabbath is a snow day, every week. You eat foods that need no preparation, you don’t go grocery shopping, run errands, or hang curtains. You don’t dust or clean out the refrigerator on the sabbath. You fall asleep while reading a useless book. You enjoy being home. You rest. You lounge. You enjoy. You HAVE TO because God told you so. God COMMANDED a sabbath rest.
Maybe certain Christians ought to stop fighting gay people for expressing love and instead take on all of us who willfully break the direct commandment from God to take a day of sabbath rest!?!
This has been my snow day. A real sabbath. The weekend was busy and full with work, errands, laundry, cooking, and hanging curtains. Why do I think I would feel refreshed after such a weekend?
At the end of any yoga practice (worth the too much money you might have spent on it!) is the final resting pose called savasana. It’s that oh so complicated pose of lying flat on your back. It works best when you have actually pushed and pulled your body, worked out lots of kinks, and breathed a whole lot. You want to sort of exhale your way into melting into the floor, like butter.
Supposedly this pose is as productive as any pose you can do in rejuvenating your body, mind, and spirit, because you are in a deep meaningful rest, without actually sleeping (although if you did fall asleep, you would not be the only snorer in the room). It is like a mini-sabbath or a tiny, little snow day, sans shoveling.You enjoy the sweet rest after working hard and giving all of yourself.
That sabbath-like savasana (which I will now refer to as sabbathana) is what I think most people come to a yoga class for. Even though you are just lying on the hard ground, it’s different than taking a nap, lying on the couch, or even going to bed for the night. Sabbathana is a wonderful gift- a real GIFT – of rest that must be received and enjoyed, just because.
I am oh so grateful for my snow day sabbath. I need to remind myself of the commandment from God (!!!) to practice sabbathana on a regular basis, because I seriously cannot wait for this big snow to melt and spring to arrive.
Peace on your head,
Rachel
