Sweet Sabbath

"The limit is set by the weekly work pause that breaks the production cycle. And those who participate in it break the anxiety cycle. They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competitor.

And as the work stoppage permits a waning of anxiety, so energy is redeployed to the neighborhood. The odd insistence of the God of Sinai is to counter anxious productivity with committed neighborliness. The latter practice does not produce so much, but it creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that redifines the human project." 

~Walter Brueggman, "Sabbath as Resistance"

I never considered "committed neighborliness" as an antidote to "anxious productivity". But the act of taking flowers to Grandma and sitting with her for an afternoon does slow me down. And hosting a game night for friends who live a couple of blocks away takes my energy from other things and redeploys it to my neighborhood. Those activities also refresh me in ways I can't explain.