Sabbath Quilt

I have two jobs--one in a downtown Indianapolis bookstore and another cleaning private residences. These jobs, plus trying to have a life, keep me busy . . . . . too busy.

Most Americans are overworked, overscheduled and overbusy. We live with calendars and PDA's in one hand, laptop or cellphone in the other. Recently large numbers of us have taken to multi-tasking or doing more than one thing at a time.

I long to break my frenetic life with rest that refreshes. I need to stop at an oasis for awhile and drink some cold water and strengthen my forces for the journey ahead, whatever it may be.

This is why I began thinking about the concept of sabbath. A rabbi friend told me that sabbath is at the very core of the Jewish faith. She said: "It is like a vacation once a week."

I could use that vacation. The problem is that I have so many competing tasks. Sunday, a day I attend mass at Christ Church Cathedral and when I don't have to go to the book store or clean houses, is the logical and traditional candidate for my sabbath.

Yet, even this "day off" becomes a magnet for all of the things that I was unable to do during the week. For example, there are bills to pay, groceries to buy, unanswered phone messages to answer, the laundry that needs laundering and the house that needs cleaning. Sound familiar?

The need to introduce some balance and equilibrium into my multi-tasked life has caused me to try to "keep sabbath" on Sundays. I have been working on this for about five years. Following are some of the things that I have learned:

1. The core activity of sabbath for me, as I indicated above, is attendance at the liturgy. In this liturgy of Word and Table, I find myself reflecting on the big issues of life and death in light of the Christian narrative. Because my work involves being on my feet or working physically, sometimes it is only during the liturgy each week that I am able to sit still. This in itself is restful.

2. At home I try to signal a change of pace with some special touch. And this is where the quilt comes in. I have a beautiful quilt that I keep folded in the armoire during the week. One of the first things I do on Sundays is to place it on my bed. This bed cover is what I call my sabbath quilt. Just having it visible reminds me that the rhythm of the week has changed, if only for a day. Another special touch is the icons which are arranged in an icon corner in the living room. It is usually on Sunday morning that I light a candle and burn incense at the icon corner and offer a prayer for whatever is on my mind.

3. Sunday is also a day when I try to extend some special act of hospitality to friends or family. It is easy to pull out the slow cooker and prepare a roast beef dinner and invite a friend. Just the smell of the roast beef reminds me of my childhood and youth when we almost always had a roast beef dinner after church and when friends visited each other. As an alternative to dinner, Sundays are when I try to find people to play board games with me. Even though I almost always lose at Scrabble, I love playing it. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

4. Generally, I have declared a moratorium on spending money on Sundays. I work in retail all other days of the week. I want to give consumerism a rest. I don't think that sabbath can be practiced in malls.

Sometimes it is impossible to bring together worship, special touches , hospitality, and a boycott on spending on a given Sunday. Sometimes the best that I can do is to put the sabbath quilt on the bed or light a candle next to the icon of the Holy Mother. I wish that this were not the case but I live in a culture that gives very little support to the concept of a day of rest and restoration. Maybe there is a special residential cleaning that I have to do (as I did today). Maybe there is an urgent meeting at the bookstore that is required. Maybe I just need to do the laundry.

When this happens I remind myself that there will be other occasions when I can practice sabbath. At the very least, I can put out the sabbath quilt as a reminder that, as the Scriptures attest, even God needed rest after the exertions of creation.