The Labor Day long weekend is always a bitter sweet one. The last hurrah before the end of “summer holiday” – even for those of us who have left school for many years.
But before you squeeze that “one last summer activity” in, ask yourself – did you actually “rest” during your summer holiday?
This might seem to be a strange question to ask – of course one would rest during a holiday. Yes, the intention to “rest” is always there. But we usually end up sliding in a road trip here, maybe a little project in the yard (or cabin) there. And then there are numerous summer festivals, BBQ and bonfire with friends and family, even a late-night swim… because the summer days are just so beautifully long.
We actually didn’t really let ourselves rest even though we have the full intention.
An excerpt from poet David Whyte’s prose sums up the notion of “rest” perfectly:
“Rest is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be. Rest is the essence of giving and receiving. Rest is an act of remembering, imaginatively and intellectually but also physiologically and physically. To rest is to give up on the already exhausted will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its endless outward need to reward itself through established goals. To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to put it right; to rest is to fall back literally or figuratively from outer targets and shift the goal not to an inner static bulls eye, an imagined state of perfect stillness, but to an inner state of natural exchange….”
“To rest is not self-indulgent, to rest is to prepare to give the best of ourselves, and perhaps, most importantly, arrive at a place where we are able to understand what we have already been given.”
REST, David Whyte
So, if you are feeling a little restless, or anxious about September by any means, maybe you should opt for a stay-cation this weekend – put on your favorite pajama, settle in on your favorite seat in the house, and just… rest. Everything else can wait for a few more days.