Fallow Fields Reap Rewards
The concept of a sabbatical comes from the Hebrew Bible. Just as we are commanded to make the seventh day of the week a Sabbath and a day of rest, so God commands us to let our land rest and lie fallow in the seventh year (Exodus 23:10). The beauty of this practice is in its admonition to God’s people to rest regularly. What sweet advice, and how needed in our hectic 21st century lives!
I just finished a so-called sabbatical. It was so-called because the break was punctuated with many weeks of intense creative work, as I wrote two classes on emotional intelligence for customer service providers and for leaders (you can read about them at http://www.krconsulting.com/Business-relationships.aspx) and spoke on four different topics at various association and vendor meetings. My sabbatical was grounded in the need to rest: I had suffered from chronic insomnia for almost 18 months, and finally realized that my body and spirit needed a break. But I also designed my sabbatical so I could answer the insistent call within me to do something new in my business life. I didn’t know what that was when I started the sabbatical on December 10, 2007, but I sensed that I needed to give my spirit restful time to figure things out.
I started the sabbatical with these goals:
1. Clarify my message, meaning define what I wanted/needed to teach others
2. Start a blog (obviously, that was accomplished)
3. Create a vision and goals for the new endeavor(s)
4. Find teachers and partners for me
5. Study and read
6. Catalogue the reading I’ve done
7. Honor my body’s need for sleep
I am proud to report that items 2, 5,6 and 7 are accomplished (I’m sleeping very well nowadays) and the others are in process. I seem to be gaining more and more clarity daily as to my message and what I am meant to do. I truly feel like I am embracing my destiny for the first time in my life.
So, I highly recommend periods of rest for you. I love the biblical recommendations of regular rest periods: a small rest period once a week (the Sabbath) and a longer rest period once every seven years (the sabbatical). I get it - the words Sabbath and sabbatical have the same root. Such sage and timeless advice!
I’ll take the biblical recommendations a step further with my advice: take time every day to connect with the Source within you, rest and worship once a week, give yourself a yearly retreat and a sabbatical leave every seven to ten years. The Source of our Being wants us to rejuvenate our bodies and souls, and regular rest provides that for us.
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