Hibernating

I've been thinking about hibernation today, not least because I'm tired and it's been a bit of a grey day.

 

It's getting round to that time of year when it's getting chillier in the mornings and the nights are drawing in.  Soon the leaves will start turning from green to golden and animals will begin preparing for their period of hibernation.

 

I've been thinking about a different type of hibernation today as well: it occurred to me recently how infrequently I shut my computer down properly.  Instead, I usually save what I'm working on and set it to 'hibernate'.

 

I'm not entirely sure why.

 

I think it makes it easier when I turn it back on - I can carry on with my work without wasting time trying to find the different documents again.  It is easier 'pausing' things halfway through, rather than having to close them down and reopen them again.

 

I don't often properly shut it down.

 

And I realised that I don't often properly 'shut down' in my own life either - I don't usually give myself a proper break from things.  Even when I'm 'resting', I will often have my mind on other things.  I often pause halfway through a project, or a book, or a painting, but I don't have a proper break from it.  I'm still thinking about them or planning or musing.  I don't turn off my thoughts. 

 

And I don't often turn off my phone or my computer or my radio or my TV either.  There is always some sort of pull on my attention.

 

But rest is an important part of the rhythm of life.  If we don't take time to rest and recuperate and restore our souls, we will burn out.  Work should always be followed by rest:

        

         "By the seventh day

         God had finished his work.

         On the seventh day

         he rested from all his work."

 

         [Genesis 2:2 MSG]

 

Jesus made this a priority: 

"As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer."

 

[Luke 5:16 MSG]

 

I want to make this a priority in my life too.  To take proper time out to rest and to restore my soul as part of the rhythm and pattern of life. 

 

Sometimes I need to 'shut down' rather than simply 'hibernating'.