sabbath and schedule

I had one of the best sabbath days of my life yesterday. it was actually on a Sunday and i actually did not do any work.
i went to church. after getting home from church, i had lunch. after lunch i hopped on my bike and found two of my dear friends sitting in the grass of rosa park's circle. i joined them. i scanned a newspaper. i read my book. i fell asleep. i conversed. i got an iced soy latte.
hours later dana and i left, me on my bike and her in her car. i told her it was a race back to her house. and i won. we walked to the store and got chips and salsa and fruit and olives and went to john ball park and sat by the pond and had a picnic.

i do not remember the last time i spent that many hours sitting in grass and i did all day and i loved it.

in conversation dana and i realized we were struggling with lots of the same questions about life and purpose and next steps. we decided to start the morning Bible study we have been saying we were going to do for a long time. this led us to my roof, to sit down and schedule.
730 am will see us either walking around the city or discussing Henri Nouwen's book, Spiritual Direction, over coffee. wednesday afternoons we will work on art projects. i am getting back in the habit of writing down a schedule for my often unstructured days.

we started today and i feel good. we had a long walk this morning and when i got home i knew exactly what to do because i had written it down the nite before. i do not feel like i have wasted my day. i do not feel the anxiety i was growing so accustomed to carrying around with me.

i hope that today is the first day of this pattern for my summer weeks. true rest one day. and schedules the rest.