Over the past five months the number one question people asked me has been, “What are you doing on your sabbatical?” And for the most part my answer has simply been, “I’m resting.”
It doesn’t sound glamorous at all, and I’m sure it didn’t look glamorous. I didn’t go travel to distant lands or change the world after all, but rest was what I dearly needed. And I am ever so grateful that I was so well supported in my time for rest by the congregation and my colleagues because, while I didn’t see it as glamorous, I did have to wrestle with the part of my psyche that told me it was “indulgent” or, dare I say, “selfish.” Part of the support I received was that I attended two conferences early on in my sabbatical, which probably doesn’t sound like resting but let me tell you a bit about those conferences and you’ll see why they were so helpful.
The first conference I attended was the Liberal Religious Educators Association for the U.S. and Canada (LREDA) Continental “Blanket Fort Fall Con” from 11/6–11/15. This was an exclusively online conference where I was free to dip in and out of worship, programming, and small-group activities as my schedule and energy level allowed—with no guilt. This conference focused on the teachings of Tricia Hersey, activist, author of “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto,” and creator of the Nap Ministry.
Attendees of Blanket Fort Con were encouraged to literally create a warm, cozy nest, or blanket fort, and bring their laptops into that space. Some of my colleagues met in in-person pods to attend the conference virtually together to also get the benefit of in-person connection with colleagues, but even in the pods many wore their PJs and brought pillows and blankets into their space to be as cozy as possible. And for my pod colleagues just like the virtual only option, there was ample grace to tend to their own need for rest and attend to whatever self-care that was needed in the emotionally charged postelection time during which we happened to be meeting.
The conference programming helped me reframe my understanding of rest from “not doing anything/ being lazy” into a rebellious defiance of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy culture. If the capitalist machine wants to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of me to keep the (unjust) system chugging along to maximize profit, resting and finding joy are acts of resistance. This reframe helped me shift my attitude toward rest during my sabbatical from something I had earned and deserved (Hello! Rest is a biological need that we all have, like breathing and eating—we don’t have to earn it!), to an opportunity to stick it to the man!
The following week my local chapter of LREDA met for our annual fall retreat. This year we were awarded a grant from the New York State Convention of Universalists (NYSCU) to help fund a truly restful fall retreat. We stayed at Vanderkamp, a beautiful location where we each had our own room, our food was catered (and delicious!), there was a hot tub and a sauna, we had a bonfire, and we brought in a wellness educator who offered a class on completing the stress cycle* with breathwork, and another session where she performed a sound bath for us (which was SO COOL!). It’s always extremely restorative to spend time with my colleagues, but this was a next-level restorative experience.
As I told the kids during my first Sunday back in worship, the most fulfilling part of being on sabbatical was being able to bump my name up on my list of priorities. I was free to check in with myself every day to see what I needed to feel healthy and happy and then give myself what I needed. While a rather simple concept, it felt pretty revolutionary. And my ongoing work now is to find the balance between activity (be it physical, mental, emotional, or most often some combination of the three) and rest.
*For more information about completing the stress cycle, I highly encourage you (especially if you were assigned female at birth or socialized as a girl/woman) to read, “Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle” by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski.
And another valuable read to learn about grind culture and its place in white supremacy is “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey.
In Faith,
Stacy Sceiford, Director of Religious Education