The Importance of Rest

Something that I perhaps took for granted or simply ignored before coming here was the need for rest. Since I arrived, each member of the team has emphasized the importance of taking time to rest and step away from all the work and worry of life here. My American mind set pushes back: "I have to get this, this and this done on time and then I can crash over the weekend." Especially coming out of a college atmosphere when I would go to bed at midnight to wake up at 4 AM to finish a paper or project, I felt that rest was a luxury and not one that was high on my list. It took being physically exhausted to the point of having to turn over my English class to one of the other teachers for me to realize that rest was not a footnote but a reoccurring theme in every chapter.

Life here is hot, busy and highly interactive. Everyday we go out in over 100 degree weather to work in the community and lend ourselves to our neighbors. Please understand, this is not a complaint, rather it is an explanation of the conclusion I was forced to make. I mention the heat because it is a constant and is the most physically draining aspect of stepping outside the house. We walk to and from the grocery store up the street then we are ready for a nap. Even while writing this post in my house, I had to get up to refill my water bottle in response to the thirst that always seems to be an issue. There is also the added stress of the language barrier that separates me from my neighbors here. Though I have planned an all out assault on this barrier by stepping up my language classes in the next month, the fact remains that my expectations in this area should be low. I am still unsure whether I have accepted that limited victories in this area are all that I will accomplish in a year. Other workers have been here for five or more years and are still meeting regularly with a language tutor. Even if somehow I manage to be able to converse with my neighbors here, I still will not be able to read or write Arabic (like I said, limited victories). I have enjoyed the big group activities as well as the small group visits, don't get me wrong. However, when three of us were on a visit that lasted nearly five hours this week, all of us were feeling rather drained afterwards. The stress of the day might go unnoticed at the time but it will quickly wear you down.

So how have I found rest? Leo Tolstoy equated rest with happiness in this way: "Rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.” This list exemplifies my idea of happiness perfectly.

• Nature offers the most noteworthy marvels and stirs in the soul of man praise to the Creator of such majesty. I find the sandy mountains and the salty sea shores of my new home to be no exception to this observation.
• Any one who knows me knows that I can not live long without a good book. Currently I am reading four (and would recommend all of them): A Separate Peace by John Knowles; A Damsel in Distress by PG Wodehouse; Bleak House by Charles Dickens; and Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Randolph Richards & Brandon O'Brien. Each of these books offers a mental escape from the day for me that far surpasses anything I might find on the TV or Internet.
• Music has served as a great way to fill the silence when resting or working around the house. Sometimes I listen to it just to listen and other times it serves as white noise to keep my mind from wandering too far.
• Lastly, I cannot separate correctly loving my neighbors from taking time to rest. I highly value my time with people here but I have come to value my times of rest in the same way. I am even excited for Ramadan to start in two weeks because it will afford Kara and I the time to rest after saying goodbye to many of our American friends who are returning to the states, the closing of Green Creations for the time of fasting and the end of this semester of English classes. 

Though I have not perfected it, I am learning to balance my desire to make friends in the community here and stepping back from the events of the day to simply breathe. Regularly, another member of the team here will vary these times of rest for us. One such case was when Sarah invited Kara, Laura, Becky and I up to her apartment to appreciate the view. The whole of town is visible from her balcony and we arrived just in time to see the sun go down and the city light up. Amidst snapping pictures of the scene, we just sat and talked. Simple enough but, like water, it is the simple things we cannot go without for very long.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108532852514122909750/SunsetOverTown?authkey=Gv1sRgCPKctb74o8v8dA#