Welcoming Sabbath: a day not for doing but for being

Our noisy day has now descending with the sun beyond our sight.

In the silence of our praying place 
we close the door upon the hectic joys and fears,
the acomplishment and anguish of the week we have left behind.

What was but moments ago,
the sustance of our life has become memory;
what we did must now be woven in what we are.

On this day we shall not do but be.

We are to walk the path of  our humanity,
no longer ride unseeing through the world 
we do not touch and vaguely sense.

No longer can we tear the world apart to make our fire.

In this day heat and warmth and light must come from deep within ourselves.

Chaim Stern, quoted by Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World p. 135
Image, H.Giovanetti, Edinburgh, Botanic Garden