Rhythms and Rest

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

I’ve tried to honour the Sabbath since I was a teenager. I’ve not always known how to do it, but in the second chapter of Genesis, it says that God declared that the seventh day is holy, and I love the rhythm that comes from that.

It’s not always easy to know what a Sabbath rest looks like, especially when we’re helping at church, food needs to be cooked, things need to be tidied and people need to be fed, but whatever I’m doing, I try and do it restfully. I don’t make it a burden, but I love the relinquishing of things at sunset on Saturday nights.

I get my shopping done, I often make a big stew on Friday nights (my cooking isn’t much to be celebrated anyway), I limit my phone usage, I have an afternoon nap. I encourage my children to get their homework done on Saturday. It’s a letting go and remembering that we’re not in charge. It’s restful and liberating.

On that day one of my favourite things to do is spend time with my family. Whether I’m reading to them (we’re currently doing Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country), or playing board games, as long as we’re relaxing together, I love it. Long may these times last.

This past year, I’ve found three things fit together like a jigsaw puzzle: art, audiobooks, and my daughter.

I love to paint watercolours, my daughter loves colouring in or diamond art and we both love audiobooks. We’ve been enjoying Stephen Fry reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, as well as a truly gorgeous tween series called The Sinclair’s Mysteries by Katherine Woodfine, read beautifully by Jessica Preddy, about a young female detective in Victorian England. I hope we get many more hours doing this before my daughter is too grown up for it.