“Again, for those of you who are intellectually inclined, I would recommend that you not spend all your time thinking. Even though discursive reason has its place, and it can actually enhance the delight of prayer, intellectuals forget to observe a Sabbath once in a while and give their minds a rest from all that labor. They think it would be a waste of time. But I consider such waste a tremendous boon.” Teresa of Avila, The Book of My Life (1562)
This afternoon I was zipping through St. Scholastica’s cloister walk between the school and the monastery, thinking about a presentation I was about to give while I was shutting off the sound on my mobile phone. In the process I nearly bumped into one of my favorite people, Sister Monica McLaughlin, Professor Emeritus and former chair of the music department.
“Oh, Sister Monica, I’m sorry!” I said as I stopped short of crashing into her. “I’m trying to do too many things at once.”
“Yes, I can see that” was her gracious reply.
My life lately has been the opposite of what Teresa advises, and it almost caused a collision in the cloister walk. Teresa reminds those of us who rush around, thinking and doing, that we should give ourselves a rest. “There is a time for thinking,” she writes, “and a time for being.” I’ve been focusing on getting many things accomplished in a small amount of time instead of on creating breathing room in my schedule for a much-needed break. This afternoon’s almost-collision woke me up to what was happening, so when I got home from school I sat in the sunshine for awhile quietly listening to music and looking at the lake.
How refreshing those sunshine moments were—just exactly what I needed—and I’m very glad I listened to Teresa today.
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