Biding My Time

Wasting my time, resting my mind…

[Pink Floyd, Biding My TimeRelics, recorded 1969-1971, released May, 1971, Starline. It’s not the usual Pink Floyd song – a bit burlesque, with an amazing trombone solo and a bluesy form. It could just as easily be a BB King, Eric Clapton, or Mama Cass number. It would be a great Bob Fosse dance number, too.]

In August of 1999, I was living in a box-filled temporary apartment, teaching a couple of classes, taking care of an eighteen month old son and writing a dissertation; Dave was in an unpaid chaplaincy program, waiting to hear where he would begin his work as a priest.  We had called three apartments home in less than a year, and Colin had undergone hernia surgery at the end of May. Exhausted and facing an uncertain future, at age 35, I got stress-induced shingles. The doctor prescribed Valtrex, codeine, and sleep. The Valtrex cured the shingles in a day, the codeine was unnecessary, and 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day for two weeks restored me to health. I learned a hard and valuable lesson: if I want a good and holy life, I have to maintain a nourishing life pattern and pace.

A good and holy life is an intentionally slower life, an opting out of the workaholic pace that is not only culturally acceptable but socially expected and rewarded. Activity and rest, time spent on and with others, meaningful work, restorative play, and prayerful practices that return my wayward soul to God have to find their places on my life’s calendar. The overly busy periods are inevitable, worries and troubles will come, but they don’t have to become my life’s template.

Choosing such a life should be a no-brainer, and it is – but only  if I trust that a life truly and well lived is always and ever in the embrace of God and the company of beloved neighbor. Am I willing to put in the time, effort, and rest to have such a life?

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;

my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore. 

Psalm 131, NRSV

[Photos by Jared Fredrickson]

 

4 thoughts on “Biding My Time

  1. Robin Nielsen

    I just love Jared’s peaceful and wondrous photos here! Thank you Jared!
    I too, especially in more recent months, have been aware when my mind and body (and then including the spirit) are telling me to slow down and take a rest! I actually do and relish being able to take a nap, for 1 hour or sometimes 15 minutes will do the trick!
    Thank you for sharing your story Johnna!

    Reply
  2. bill Albritton

    I have been blessed reading your ponderings on Pink Floyd titles/lyrics–my fav back then and still. At your Coffee&Conversation creation, we have been studying Nouwen’s “The Spiritual Life” along the theme of “What, me worry?” during this Lenten season. ..how we live these over-filled, unfulfilled lives …how to practice the spiritual disciplines of solitude and community…how to move from an “absurd” (Latin “surdus”=”deaf”) way of living/being to a life of obedience (“audire”=”listening”). Thank you for enabling this journey!

    Reply
    1. Johnna Post author

      Thanks, Bill! It’s been a joy to revisit some of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, and to ponder the spiritual life as we all journey through Lent. Peace, Johnna

      Reply

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