What Happens When We Re-Create

On Curating your Day

“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

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• 8 hours of sleep

• 8 hours of work

• 8 hours of recreation (or re-creation)

  -Slogan from eight hour-day movement

What is this craziness?

It feels right and, in many ways, unachievable in the late-stage capitalism we live in. 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 interesting on the global history of the 8-hour workweek.)

I came across this idea on a podcast; the speaker (whom I can’t remember-probably Rob Bell…) changed "recreation" to "re-creative" activities. It feels like one step to the left, and yet it changes the meaning almost entirely.  

As I let the ideas settle, I found a smaller and deeper idea that feels like an invitation.

It’s not the thing; it’s how we do the thing.

Re-creative activities are those things that 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 of 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 can also be re-creative when I approach the tasks with fresh eyes. 

To reframe recreation as re-creative feels helpful. Recreation can feel indulgent, something for the weekend or vacation.

Re-creative feels vital and essential daily. It offers us the opportunity to look at our days through a new lens.

This viewpoint invites us to ask, daily: How are the 24 hours of my 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? If it IS, how can I harness its power? If it’s not, how can I change my perspective to make it so?

• Is doom scrolling re-creative for my spirit? 

• Is this video game re-creative for my brain? 

• Is vacuuming re-creative for my body?

• Is this genre of book, movie, or music re-creative for my soul?

Adding a re-creative lens to each day can also help us identify what's just a waste of time, or what ignites new ideas and creative connections.

You’ve been there, one interesting article leads to seven more useless articles, and BOOM, 30 minutes of re-creative time is gone!

With this lens, suddenly, that time that seems like a harmless waste of time becomes time taken away from the critical, renewing work of engaging in re-creative activities. This idea of Re-creative activities is a subtle shift I’m finding helpful for filtering the hours of my day. 

• What re-creates you?

• What re-creative activities should you 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.  

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

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“Look closely at the present you are constructing:
it should look like the future you are dreaming.”

―Alice Walker

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Photo by Nicolas Messifet on Unsplash

I try to 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 of words that “sparkle” up and puts 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 for you, or maybe it’s different. There is much food for thought in each of these passages)

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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

“When you give up the unwinnable struggle to do everything, that’s when you can start pouring your finite time and attention into a handful of things that truly count. When you no longer demand perfection from your creative work, your relationships, or anything else, that’s when you’re free to plunge energetically into them. And when you stop making your sanity or self-worth dependent on first reaching a state of control that humans don’t get to experience, you’re able to start feeling sane and enjoying life now, which is the only time it ever is.”

― Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

“In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do—spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.”
― Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

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A special note:

I’ve started a new Substack!

I’m about a year and a half into a four or five-year process of becoming ordained as a priest in the Episcopal church.

I’m starting an M.Div program in August and moving deeper into my formation.

I want to keep my writing here at Smaller and Deeper what it is, and I’m also ready to share more of what I’m thinking, feeling, learning, wondering about, and challenged by as I move forward in this calling.

Right now, this is a private Substack (meaning only people I share it with can find it). I might change that as it develops… or not… time will tell.

I plan to post regularish. I have lots of ideas, and I’m in an interesting period of transition, moving into several years of intentionally focusing my time and energy on my studies and practical formation.

If you would like to follow along, I welcome you! (You will need to subscribe to have access!)