Are you always looking outside your doors?
Does your chest burst with pride when you look on full fields?
Let this be your year of Sabbath:
to practice rest and renewal.
Let the fields lie fallow.
Depend on the natural fruits of the earth, and your own reserves.
What grows in your field, let it be freely given
to those with no land to call their own.
Are you looking for the comforting arms of others?
Soak in the smiles of sidewalk strangers.
Find joy in your prayer closet, in the corners of your home.
Live on less and find… it can be enough.
When you are used to endless banquets,
a simple meal feels like starving.
But we must starve the disease for our own survival.
It thrives, as well, on human closeness:
spreads from shared lips and cups and laughter.
Be satisfied, be satisfied, dear wandering soul.
Be patient and let the land and the body restore herself.
Let the dolphins return, and the birds make their nests.
Release your debtors. Teach children to play outside.
Give yourself time to renew from within;
not just sleep, or entertainment, but deeper enjoyment
of where you are, and who you find yourself to be
to be becoming when the rest is gone.
Discover that you are the one the LORD loves.
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