It is a fair enough law of life: if you want to have money to afford your wants/needs, you have to work for it. Moreover, the cost only goes up from here. That’s why the answer is to work more, right?
In no time at all, the pursuit of a paycheck quickly becomes an addiction. Forget keeping up with the Joneses – we’re keeping up with ourselves! Time away from the desk is spent working on “special projects” or looking for new opportunities. Days off become things we remember hearing about once, and the weekend seems like another childhood memory.
We scroll through our phones, ignoring the people right in front of us. Bosses and fellow employees alike too often see no problem demanding extra favors after the work day is done, and we oblige them. Should a text go unanswered, our jobs may be at risk. At least, that is what we tell ourselves. In France, legislators sought to stem this problem last year by putting a law into effect that banned sending work e-mails after the business day. That may well be a good start, but at least in the United States, the problem has gone deeper than our laws and into our identity.
Ultimately, our lives suffer, our work suffers and eventually, we meet that ever-looming monster: burn-out. If there is to be another narrative, however, we have to take a moment to pause and reclaim autonomy over our lives.
Work is not bad. It is good and necessary. So, too, is time away from it.
Last Friday, I took myself on a date. Being the mature adult I am, I went to an 11:35 A.M. showing of Peter Rabbit. Honestly, I came with low expectations. Even so, the theater was empty, my seat reclined and I made up my mind to enjoy the experience.
It was the first day off in months that I was not filling with projects, yard work, house chores or studying up. I laughed alone in the theater, I thought of family and friends who would enjoy it, too, and I watched the credits through to the end. When the music stopped, the lights did not immediately come back on. A silence filled the space. In that moment, I felt the urge to stand and go take on the world.
The sensation lasted longer than the day itself. I had work the next morning (Saturdays are busy times in Orlando), and a greater joy filled that work day than most in the past year. When I sat down in the early evening to write, words fell effortlessly out of my pen.
With a wonderful family at my side and steady work for a company that treats me well, I have very little to complain of in my own life. Even so, I had fallen into a rut, as of late. Wake up – go to work – come home – write – turn on the T.V. until my brain goes numb – go to sleep – repeat. Without seeking rest and variety, I was turning into a poor substitute for a machine. After a day away, I felt new and alive!
We know life creeps up on us. We know chronic stress is bad and rest is good. We need time away, but having time off means nothing if we do not utilize it as that. In order to use it well, we have to unplug and respect our own space in the world.
This has never been an easy thing to do. If it were, we would not have the fourth Commandment because it would not have been necessary. For as long as we have walked the earth, we have needed to rest, but we have also fought that need out of pride, ambition or the feeling that we somehow did not deserve it.
Quick recap: It is not deserved. It is necessary.
Whether it involves going on a spiritual retreat, going to the zoo or taking yourself on a date to see a silly movie, it is important to not answer those calls and e-mails that demand something of us that is not owed in that moment. Depending on your boss or line of work, you might even talk to your management about this. No one has to be conquered. In the end, everybody wins.
There is simply a time to work and a time to rest.
