I finished this book in July 2024. I recommend this book 10/10.
Why you should read this book:
This is the perfect book for realizing that you need rest. It explains how the Sabbath fits in different religions and norms. And, how you can take care of you, your family, and your friends.
Get your copy here.
🚀 The book in three sentences
Why do we urge to be more productive; instead, what does the end look like? Enjoy the process, find the rhythm.
There is no rush to get to the end.
What if this is it? Enjoy this moment, with everything it has.
✍️ My favorite quotes
Lao Tzu said, "Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."
📝 My notes and thoughts
P6. Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center. "remember the Sabbath" means "Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it." Remember, as if we would forget. Indeed, the assumption is that we will forget. And history has proven that, given enough time, we will.
P19. We meet dozens of people, have so many conversations. We do not feel how much energy we spend on each activity, because we imagine we will always have more energy at our disposal. This one little conversation, this one extra phone call, this one quick meeting, what can it cost? But it does cost, it drains yet another drop of your life. Then, at the end of days, weeks, months, years, we collapse, we burn out, and cannot see where it happened. It happened in a thousand unconscious events, tasks, and responsibilities that seemed easy and harmless on the surface but that each, one after the other, used a small portion of our precious life. And so we are given a commandment: Remember the Sabbath. Rest is an essential enzyme of life, as necessary as air. Without rest, we cannot sustain the energy needed to have life. We refuse to rest at our peril—and yet in a world where overwork is seen as a professional virtue, many of us feel we can legitimately be stopped only by physical illness or collapse.
P22. "Find a candle that holds some beauty or meaning for you. When you have set aside some time—before a meal, or during prayer, meditation, or simply quiet reading—set the candle before you, say a simple prayer or blessing for yourself or someone you love, and light this candle. Take a few mindful breaths. For just this moment, let the hurry of the world fall away."
P26. Who is it that can make muddy water clear? ask the Tao Te Ching. But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become clear itself. The invitation to rest is rooted in an undeniable spiritual gravity that allows all things to rest to settle, to find their place. There comes a moment in our striving when more effort actually becomes counterproductive, when our frantic busyness only muddies the waters of our wisdom and understanding. When we become still and allow our life to rest, we feel a renewal of energy and gradual clarity of perception.
P43. All Jesus' teaching seems to hinge on this singular truth concerning the nature of life: It is all right. Do not worry about tomorrow. I have come that you might have life abundantly. Be not afraid. Over and over in parable, story, and example, he insists that regardless how it goes for us, we are cared for, we are safe, we are all right. There is a light of the world, a kingdom of heaven inside us that will bear us up, regardless of our sorrow, fear, or loss. Do not wait to enjoy the harvest of your life; you are already blessed. The kingdom of God is already here. It is within you and among you.
P70. The story is told of a South American tribe that went on a long march, day after day, when all of a sudden they would stop walking, sit down to rest fore a while, and then, make camp for a couple of days before going any farther. They explained that they needed the time to rest so that their souls could catch up with them.
P82. Lao Tzu said, "Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."
P83. When we breathe, we do not stop inhaling because we have taken all the oxygen we will ever need, but because we have all the oxygen we need for this breath. Then, we exhale, release carbon dioxide, and make room for more oxygen. Sabbath, like the breath, allows us to imagine we have done enough work for this day. Do not be anxious about tomorrow, Jesus said again and again. Let the work of this day be sufficient.
P99. In the 1950s, the national dialogue was preoccupied with very different concerns. Articles in magazines agonized over the perplexing dilemma looming ahead: What are we going to do with all our leisure time? Experts confidently predicted that—thanks to the efficiency of automation and the proliferation of near-miraculous labor-saving devices—we would all be working thirty-hour weeks, perhaps even twenty-hour weeks, and that we would be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of so much leisure time. What happened? Essentially, we traded away all that nascent leisure time in exchange for more work and greater pay so that we could afford to buy more and more products. In 1947, the average American adult spent $6,500 on material possessions, goods, and services. Today, adjusted for inflation, we spend an average of over $14,000 per adult. We spend twice as much for larger houses and fill them with twice as many appliances, cars, clothes, and televisions.
P124. Philosophers from Aristotle to Jefferson have assumed "the pursuit of happiness" was a noble aspiration of civilized life. In our own age, while we accept there may be different approaches to achieving happiness, we agree that happiness and joy are precious fruits of a life well lived. Finding happiness in life is universally perceived as an essential human endeavor. Spiritual teachers and philosophers seem to agree on this point: Life should not just make us tired; life should make us happy. Happiness grows only in the sweet soil of time. As our time is eaten away by speed and overwork, we are less available to be surprised by joy, a sunset, a kind word, an unplanned game of tag with a child, or a warm loaf of bread from the oven. But for all our striving and accomplishment, our lives are more and more efficient, squeezing every ask into tighter increments, hoping to somehow "get" our happiness when we are able to fit it in.
P124. At first blush, the satisfaction of desire seems very much like happiness. After all, what could possibly make us happier than acquiring what we want? But if we look closely at the dynamics of desire, we quickly discover that it is a temporary and ultimately unsatisfying impulse.
P136. The lie is this: While they are promising happiness, they are really selling dissatisfaction. Our entire economy is predicated on dissatisfaction. If we are satisfied, we do not need more than we already have. Once we have eaten our fill, we do not ask for another helping. If we are happy in our marriage, we are not desperate to have an affair. If we are satisfied with our home and our community, we will not desire to move. When we are happy, we are not driven to grasp for more than we have.
P137. Sabbath is time to stop, to refrain from being seduced by our desires. To stop working, stop making money, stop spending money. See what what you have. Look around. Listen to your life. Do you really need more than this? Spend a day with your family. Instead of buying the new coffee maker, make coffee in the old one and sit with your spouse on the couch, hang out—do what they do in the picture without paying for it. Just stop. That is, after all, what they are selling in the picture: people who have stopped. You cannot buy stopped. You simply have to stop. Spend a day napping and eating what is left over in the refrigerator; play a game with your children, take a walk, have a cup of tea, make love, do nothing of any consequence or importance. Then, at the end of the day, where is the desperate yearning to consume, to shop, to buy what we do not need? It dissolves. Little by little, it falls away.
P160. Our most valuable legacy—the wealth of the children of the earth—is starving for our time and our love. We are expected to sacrifice more time to work, seeking more work, being on call for work, and recovering from overwork. Then, with the money we make, we can buy more things for our children, things like televisions and computers and CDs and video games that will give them, the marketeers insist, a happy childhood. During Sabbath we take the time to bless our children, place our hands upon their heads, our fingers in their hair, and pray for their strength, and courage, and happiness. We rest with them, eat with them, play with them, walk with them, listen to their stories and their worries and their laughter, and remember to whom they belong. All the video games and cable television and computers and clothes and CDs in the galaxy cannot place a single hand on a single head and grant this Sabbath blessing.
P175. True freedom comes when we become—as Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi said—"nobody special." We do our work not for glory and honor, but simply because we must, because we believe in the value of right action and good labor. In the end, we may or may not receive our reward from the world. More often we receive our reward in secret. During a quiet walk, when we suddenly feel lighter; when we receive a kind word, and the heart is made warm and full; during a moment's reflection, when we feel a clarity of purpose, in these and a thousand other unexpected ways, we secretly receive our reward.
P205. Everything we invite into our lives requires a certain measure of time and attention—usually more than we think when we acquire it. So our days, especially our time "off," our evenings and weekends, end up being dedicated to keeping all our possessions in working order. The invitation to poverty is not an invitation to suffer deprivation, but rather to consider whether the things we have acquired are really serving us—or are we serving them.
P210. We can, over time, become enthralled in the trance of our work. It is all-important, it must be done right away, it won't get done without me, I cannot stop or it will all fall apart, it is all up to me, terrible things will happen if I don't get this done. I have to keep working because I have things to buy and there are bills to pay for those things and I have to buy faster computers and more expensive telephones to help me get more done so I can keep up and make money to pay the bills for the things I need to buy to help me get things done.
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