Sick Day/Snow Day/ Sabbath
Three weeks ago I woke up with a head cold. You know the type: eyes are sore and feel heavy, headache, congestion with intermittent nasal drainage followed by trickling-down the back of the throat, guaranteed to cause fits of eye-watering coughing in which you think you will cough out part of your brain and lungs. Wasn’t the flu and it wasn’t covid. Just the old-fashioned head cold.
So, I cancelled/postponed any in-person meetings/events, drank lots of fluids, and rested. I had to take a sick day (actually a bunch of sick days until I was reasonably “normal”.)
While I find being under the weather incredibly annoying, secretly it was kind of nice to have an excuse to not be so busy. Dare I say, it reminded me a little of the pandemic and those open-ended days.
Of course, during the pandemic, I was feeling healthy and so, feeling a little cooped up. For most of the cold week, I wasn’t feeling like doing anything: didn’t want to read, or watch any movies, or even sleep.
The tree outside our front windows.
On Monday, we had a doozy of a blizzard in my neck of the woods. The governor banned all travel on Monday and Tuesday. Our street had one lane plowed (we are the emergency route) but all other streets around us have not been plowed as of this writing. Fortunately we have power and so it is another type of rest day.
But this feeling of having a “sick or snow day” intrigues me. Many years ago, in the employment parlance, they talked of a “mental health day”. Not sure if that is the correct term nowadays.
There is something to be said about having a mental health day- a day to clear one’s mind and to reset the pace of our living.
Of course, the Creator of the Universe- which includes the creation of each one of us- knew that we needed a regular “mental health day” which God called the Sabbath. Of course, Sabbath is different from just taking a day off, in that there is a spiritual element to it. The fact that we become, “short-changed” each week of a productive day is one of faith: We rely on God’s time not our own. Just like God’s economy of money, in God’s economy of time, when we give to God first, miraculously, all our needs, demands and responsibilities are met.
According to the Mayo Clinic, everyone would do well to have a mental health day, before any burnout or “sickness” really occurs. It is a day to recharge but not necessarily to just do nothing- or to sit or lie in bed all day (though, I imagine for some, having a day or part of a day like that would be a luxury and well received.) The Mayo Clinic suggests the following: *
Unplug social media
Review Goals
Be creative
Get physical
Spend time outdoors
What about you? Have you ever taken a mental health day? If so, what was happening for you to do so? Or, do you keep going until something, like a cold knocks you out? Do you regularly practice a Sabbath? What does that look like for you?
During this Lenten time, some people take on a practice. I have been sending out daily words for us to contemplate. In addition, I would encourage us to practice a Sabbath on our Sundays: to take some time outdoors-noticing the beauty of the created world, to do something other than our routine on “normal” days and to look at our surroundings with a heart posture of gratitude.