I am digging into the ways I work and rest for Lent this year.
I have spent time reflecting on my own focus on work and rest, looking for the ways I balance the two, and considering how I recognize when I am working and when I am resting.
My understanding of work and rest has changed dramatically over the last few years. I have become an entrepreneur as, and because, I have grown more contemplative.
Several years ago, as I had begun learning and developing several contemplative practices, I had an opportunity to decide what work I wanted to do next. When this had happened before I had sent out my resume and done interviews, looking for a position I could turn into the job I wanted to do for a while. Each time I had learned and grown, and prepared for whatever would come next.
This time was different.
For the first time, I took time to rest and reflect. I spent time discerning what life had prepared me to do, what I was drawn to do for the rest of my life.
My practices helped open my eyes and heart to my own core values, and ways to put those values to work. I came up with three things I was drawn to do: spiritual life mentoring, leadership coaching, and organizational coaching. That was the beginning of this pilgrimage, the start of my exploring whether or not this is a real job.
Each day is a new step on that journey, a new part of that exploration.
It is a challenge to become both contemplative and entrepreneurial. There are great gifts and joys, as well as challenges and lessons.
How do you understand work and rest?
Has your relationship to rest and work changed over time?
[Image by Esparta]
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