Our Monthly Spiritual Themes guide our Chalice Circles, which are small, intentional groups of members and friends that gather for spiritual enrichment through personal sharing. For more information on Chalice Circles, please email chalicecircles@uuprinceton.org. Our Chalice Circle thoughts and questions around the theme of Sabbath this month are:

“We learn to rest by practice, by routine, over time. This is true of our bodies, our minds, and our souls, which are always intertwined.” ― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

What seemingly “easy” activities in life have you come to realize are improved with practice? Do you have (or strive for) a practice of rest? 

 

“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” ― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

If you were to disappear temporarily from the responsibilities you feel tied to (work, family, friends, etc), what do you think would be the result? Do you imagine, for you, it would be a positive or negative experience to have separation from your everyday connections? 

 

“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath – our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbath for us.” ― Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives

Have you been through a time when lack of rest affected your health negatively? Were you able to re-establish balance? 

 

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ― Alan Cohen

When you’ve overlooked one or the other, how did you know?