Lessons on Leisure

When people ask me in the summertime if I am a stay at home mom or in between jobs or an undergraduate student or a beach bum, I have to laugh. Does being truly relaxed show that easily? Or maybe it is because I'm reading poolside for the majority of sunny days. In any case, I laugh and proudly state that I am a teacher, and yes, summer is one of the best parts of the job. But that is only partially true. At the best of times, I only feel half me during the summer; I miss teaching my students and frankly getting to tell them all of the wonderful things my brain has thought about during this glorious summer break is a happy thought.

My current task is to create my back to school lessons and I cannot wait to incorporate some of the things on which I have been reflecting this summer―including reflection! Oh, how my soul has been renewed and, in some ways, rediscovered this summer through the quiet times here at the house or in the glorious outdoors. However, my summer certainly did not begin that way. Early on, I found myself trying to be the best of housewives―chipping away at my accumulated to-do list, cooking yummy meals, purging overflowing closets, scrubbing the forgotten nooks and scouring forsaken crannies of the apartment―all of this with some TV series blasting away the silence of the house. Frustration quickly began to set in.

I realized something needed to change one evening when I announced to my husband as he arrived home from his two-hour commute that I was done being a housewife and needed to find a high-salaried, suit-wearing, corporate, non-house-wife-career―this was not the life for me! My alarmed husband sat me down on the couch, handed me a glass of blueberry iced tea with a side of tissues and told me to explain myself. I quickly realized that there were several issues which led to this meltdown but most significantly, I felt the need to redeem my time. I was addicted to power mode. I felt that if I was not multitasking, that my time was being wasted. Here am I, smart, talented, capable woman reduced to what? Caring for the husband and home that I love? Clearly I was not right in the head.

The solution was something I had not truly considered before: intentional reflection; true leisure. I should have been clued in the last week of June that this was my Divine summer homework assignment. I had just arrived at Ashland University's campus for a week of classes as part of their Masters in American History and Government program. The first evening the director of the program, Dr. Peter Schramm, welcomed the room full of teachers to a week of leisure. I was sitting there thinking, "you've got to be kidding me!" I was here to do battle with 1500 pages of assigned reading, 17 lectures on American foreign policy, and a final exam; where was I supposed to schedule leisure into that? He reminded us that our Founding Fathers considered leisure to be the intentional, committed engagement of the things in nature and world of ideas, which strike our fancy and conversation in like-minded community. It sounded ideal and completely beyond my meager reach.

Benjamin Franklin explained some of his thoughts this way in The Way to Wealth¸"…employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; so that, as Poor Richard says, a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things." It took me several weeks to wrap my head around the idea that if my body and soul were to experience true leisure, I must intentionally work to obtain it. An oxymoron, no?

Here are a few summary thoughts on the subject:

Engage with big ideas. I cannot reflect on anything of consequence without first establishing a stimulating input of ideas. For me, this means reading books that have been sitting on my shelf, listening to lectures from the Society for Classical Learning's summer conference, and beginning a Scripture memory program. For a list of books that sparked big ideas this summer, see the end of this post.

Turn off the noise. Once I took the time to disengage from the noise of pop music and the boob tube, I realized I wanted to hear myself think! There was more rattling around inside my head than just a to-do list now that the seeds of bigger thoughts had been planted from reading and listening to meaningful lectures.

Talk with interesting people. This summer I had the privilege to travel extensively for family and friend's weddings. Normally, my introverted self is content to look nice on my husband's arm and not say much, but I made an intentional effort to get to know some new people, particularly the octogenarians of my husband's family; such wonderful people with marvelous stories!

In some ways, I feel like a kid again, in awe of the world God has made; and I know that makes me a better teacher, wife and friend. Isn't it funny to think that Adam and Eve were made to cultivate their domain, be fruitful, multiply, and have a dynamic relationship with the God of the universe? That translates into one huge to-do list, or in my world, at least five sticky notes! When one can find satisfaction in the purposeful engagement of one's domain while contemplating the wonders of God's universe, life is full of meaning and one's soul can find rest doing what is was created to do―knowing God and enjoying Him and His creation forever. As for me, I am resolved to start now, in the midst of my busy, suburban life, as the wife of a wonderful man and keeper of our home.

So the question remains: how can I sustain this practice of leisure and reflection during the busy schedule of a teacher and homemaker? I am not sure yet, but now that I've tasted and seen that it is good, I'm not going to easily let it go!

Regards,

Mrs. Ting

Leisure Reading:

Caldecott, Stratford. (2009). Beauty for truth's sake: On the re-enchantment of education. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

Greene, Brian. (2011). The hidden reality: parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos. New York, NY: Vintage Press.

Martin, Ralph G. (1969). The life of lady Randolph Churchill, The romantic years 1854-1895. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Martin, Ralph G. (1971). The life of lady Randolph Churchill, The dramatic years 1895-1921. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

O'Toole, G.J.A. (1991). Honorable Treachery: A history of U.S. Intelligence, espionage, and covert action from the American Revolution to the CIA. New York, NY: The Atlantic Monthly Press.

Smith, James K. A. (2009). Desiring the kingdom: Worship, worldview, and cultural formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.