Sabbath can happen any time during the week. Most people think of it as Sunday but it is a time apart, a time of rest, a time to let the energy that you lack be replenished any time during the week. We all need sabbath but we too often fill sabbath time with activity. Our pace doesn’t slow down it just shifts to another commitment. We work at our play and we worship our work. We have confused the way we live.

It is hard to start taking sabbath time when it has never been a part of your routine. So I suggest you start out easy – don’t expect too much at first. Take an hour some morning and set it aside to do NOTHING. That is right, just sit in a sunny warm place or a cool quiet spot or go off to your favorite coffee shop and do nothing, or just read, or write a letter to an old friend. The amazing thing about rest is that God designed it to help you be more creative, rested, re-energized, and simply a better you – the person you are meant to be. Each week add ten minutes if you can until you have an entire day. Coming from a place of rest is when we are at our best. In fact,  the best decisions get made from a sabbath perspective. Are you ready to be better, happier, and whole again? If so – take the time. Let God’s perspective control your actions.

Thanksgiving is more an attitude than a day of the year. Living thankfully can change your entire outlook on life. How do we do that? Here are a few ideas for after the “forgotten holiday”: a. appreciate the small stuff – notice the details of life and the small blessings around you. Take time to think about them; b. tell someone that you are thankful for them being a part of your life and see how they light up; c. show thanks by helping someone who has a need. When you buy groceries this week buy a few extra for a local food pantry or better yet ask them if you can volunteer an hour or two a week or a month; d. Donate blood. It is not that scary and it really is a gift of life; e. practice the art of saying “thank you.” When someone compliments you don’t say things like, “It was nothing, Don’t worry about it, It was not that big of a deal.” Just say thank you. Thanksgiving is a day that can last and the return is that you become a healthier and happier person.

I led the funeral for a woman today that few attended and where no one quite knew what to say. It was sad to see so few. Even greater sadness that so few could express anything good to say. She left her wealth to charities and those will benefit but the legacy she left was that of a cantankerous woman who few really knew. Relationships – people become our legacy. People that God loves and we can love.

My message to the people there was to live with love. Love through the barriers of crusty hard souls and soft pliable souls open to love. Love those around you, love those you do not even know, love the beautiful and the less than lovely, love those you are close to and those you have a hard time relating to – just love. Your light brightens a dark world. Today was beautiful and sunny and as the wind wiped through the small group that stood around the casket near the mausoleum next to Pine Lake I shed a tear for the loss of love when a person has only a marble tomb to speak for them. Let your love do the talking.

Wendell Berry wrote, “There is a day when the road neither comes nor goes, and the way is not a way but a place.” This place speaks out for love as though there is no tomorrow. Let that light break through and shine. Be the love – don’t just do loving things.