“Self-care is never a selfish act - it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch.”
― Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
8 hours of sleep
8 hours of work
8 hours of recreation (or re-creation)
-Slogan from eight hour-day movement
I heard this in a talk I listened to this week. I loved the premise. I jotted in my notes to find the source. I was surprised to learn there is an interesting history behind 8, 8, 8. It was the slogan for the 8-hour workweek movement in May 1886. (This Wikipedia article is quite interesting on the global history of the 8-hour workweek.)
The speaker I was listening to didn’t focus on sleep or work. It was the 8 hours dedicated to recreation. The speaker I heard changed recreation to re-creative activities. It feels one step to the left, and yet it changes the meaning almost entirely.
Re-creative activities, those things the remake and renew us. The things we do to restore parts of our soul. It’s not necessarily the thing itself; it’s how we do the thing. Dusting can be re-creative work when we approach it with a spirit encouraged by the progress we see rather than judgment at the dirt we find. So many of the tasks I do daily to keep my family fed, home tidy, and kids in clean clothes can feel like work (a struggle some days). It also can be re-creative when I approach the tasks with fresh eyes.
It’s not the thing; it’s how we do the thing.
To reframe recreation as re-creative feels helpful. Recreation can feel indulgent, something for the weekend or vacation. Recreative feels vital and essential daily. It offers us the opportunity to look at our days with a new lens. How are the 24 hours of the day ordered? Maybe one day you need more than 8 hours of sleep; instead of feeling guilty about sleeping in, know that you are adding an extra hour of sleep to re-creative tasks.
The invitation to view a portion (one-third!) of our day as re-creative also invites us to consider the habitual, repetitive things we do with a new question, is this re-creative for my soul?
Is doom scrolling re-creative?
Is this video game re-creative?
Are three hours of youtube re-creative? (Sometimes, yes, James Corden’s monologue and antics are 100% re-creative in my life!)
Adding a re-creative lens to each day also can help us find the things that are just wastes of time. One interesting article leads to seven more vapid articles and 30 minutes of re-creative time gone! Suddenly that time that seems harmless is time I’m taking away from the critical, renewing work of engaging in re-creative activities.
Re-creative activities are a subtle shift that I’m finding helpful to filter the hours of my day through.
What re-creates me?
What re-creative activities should I be engaged in?
Consider curating your days to an 8,8,8 format. It might not change anything you do in a day, but maybe you can label the things you do in a way that changes dusting from work to re-creative or cooking a meal from a task to a re-creative event.
Books I’m reading, have read, or can’t stop thinking about.
currently reading:
Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times by Matthew Fox
This is one that I pick up and read a few chapters and then come back to in a few weeks. Every time I pick it up I love it. Fox compares and contrasts Hildegard with modern-day saints, poets, and thinkers. In one chapter he invites Hildegard and Mary Oliver into a conversation. Another chapter has Hildegard and Howard Thurman meeting.
Recently Finished:
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
I’ve been into WWII historical fiction. I really enjoyed this one. It’s the story of three women who cross paths because of a Nazi concentration camp. A German doctor, a Polish prisoner, and a New York socialite. It’s based on a true story. It’s interesting to consider how people end up in the places and situations they do.
“Look closely at the present you are constructing:
it should look like the future you are dreaming.”
―Alice Walker
ideas.poems.quotes.songs that sparkled for me this week.
(I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
(I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different, there is much food for thought in each of these passages)
(A note: This one is hard. I read this quote this week and I’ve wrestled with it all week. Sometimes deeper means looking at hard truths, holding them up to the light, and courageously seeing our place in the fabric of the world. I feel uncomfortable, defensive, angry, and sad when I read this. Also, I’m so thankful to be reminded of the privileges that I do have. . and the responsibility that it requires. When I was “fact-checking” this quote I was surprised to learn that it’s from March 2020. It made the rounds this week and I assumed it was a recent quote given the current situation in India. In many ways, it makes the words even more prophetic. )
From an Indian Doctor:
"Social distancing is a privilege. It means you live in a house large enough to practise it. Hand washing is a privilege too. It means you have access to running water. Hand sanitisers are a privilege. It means you have money to buy them. Lockdowns are a privilege. It means you can afford to be at home. Most of the ways to ward the Corona off are accessible only to the affluent. In essence, a disease that was spread by the rich as they flew around the globe will now kill millions of the poor. All of us who are practising social distancing and have imposed a lockdown on ourselves must appreciate how privileged we are. Many Indians won’t be able to do any of this."
Jayshree Shukla23 March, 2020
If you work with a different rhythm, you will come easily and naturally home to yourself. Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey. There are no general principles for this art of being. Yet the signature of this unique journey is inscribed deeply in each soul. If you attend to yourself and seek to come into your presence, you will find exactly the right rhythm for your life.”
― John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”
― Howard Thurman
