Sunday Recess

Remember recess?

For a little while, the assignment stopped.

We left the classroom.

We moved our bodies.

We laughed.

We talked to our friends.

We played.

And then the bell rang, and we went back inside.

Nobody considered recess a failure to learn.

It was part of the school day.

As adults, though, we sometimes treat rest very differently.

We create schedules, establish goals, accept responsibilities, and start building consistency.

Then somewhere along the way, we convince ourselves that being consistent means constantly doing something.

If we're not producing, planning, answering, creating, fixing, or accomplishing, we start wondering whether we're falling behind.

But expanding consistency also means learning how to consistently recover.

Rest isn't the opposite of productivity.

Sometimes it protects it.

That's especially important when we're entering a new grade level with new expectations.

More responsibility requires more awareness of our capacity.

If we're going to keep showing up, we have to pay attention to the person who's doing all that showing up.

Sometimes that means sleeping.

Sometimes it means putting the phone down.

Sometimes it's spending time with people we love without turning the moment into a networking opportunity.

Sometimes it's enjoying our home.

Sometimes it's worship.

Sometimes it's laughter.

Sometimes it's doing absolutely nothing productive and refusing to feel guilty about it.

And sometimes recess is simply changing the kind of work we're doing.

Maybe today isn't the day for another meeting.

Maybe it's the day to walk through the garden.

Read something because you enjoy it.

Cook.

Listen to music.

Sit outside.

Take the long way home.

Recess doesn't mean we've forgotten the assignment.

It means we understand that we're human while completing it.

There's an important distinction, though.

Recess has boundaries.

The bell eventually rings.

Rest becomes part of consistency when we can step away without abandoning what we've committed to.

That's different from quitting.

That's different from avoiding.

That's different from procrastinating indefinitely and calling it self-care.

Healthy rest allows us to return.

So if you've spent this first week of September reading the syllabus, doing the homework, trusting quiet growth, and making room for what's important, maybe today's assignment is simpler.

Take recess.

Enjoy it.

Don't spend the whole time worrying about what you should be doing instead.

The work will still be there.

And when the bell rings, we'll go back inside.

Recess is part of the schedule too.