havin' a jubilee

In the book of Leviticus, there's a prescribed "rest period" after 50 years of toiling:

"...[Y]ou shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces." Leviticus 25:9-12 NRSV

Regardless of your religious views on the bible and its messages, or who they came from or whatever - this is a pretty good lesson. The land needs a rest to become productive again. So do we.

I mention this after a very long day of trials and tribulations re: my own work situations. I've been struggling to make a home for myself in a job that might not be right for me. I began the employment as a way to reconnect with my teaching nature - and I have worked with some incredible people in the past few years. One by one, they have begun to leave. I am still in the "hanging on" mindset - preferring to suck the last bit of marrow from the drying-up bones of this job. There ain't much left. Perhaps moving on should be done when the time is right, and perhaps that's not when one is kicked so forcefully out the door?

Buddah would say get rid of the attachment, and the problem is solves itself.

I have an invitation to an all-New England Friends yearly meeting gathering in April sitting in my inbox. A Quaker hoopla of reflection. Popped into my box in a timely divine fashion. Perhaps it will be a good kick-off to my own "jubilee"?

Here's an excerpt from the meeting notes:

Jubilee is, then, a kind of laying-down of everything in order to be reconnected with the divine. It is a
kind of new beginning, to let go of old structures, old business where there may not be life, and be ready
with hands as empty as possible to receive what God is asking of us.
I pray, as part of our work together we will ask each other, what is the Spirit asking of me/us? Is the
Spirit asking me/us to move forward on this or is this a piece of work that I/we can lay aside for a time to
attend to that still small voice, the sole authentic authority for movement?
And the second part of this process is to hold ourselves accountable for acting on what insight, perhaps
vision, we are given. In order to do that, we need to be concrete and specific in naming not only what we
are called to but what we are currently doing.

Name what I am currently doing.... hhhmmm......spinning my wheels? Trying to accomidate a calling that is not a good fit? I am usually very articulate, and yet in this moment I am at a true loss for words.

So there we are. Perhaps I am not in crisis after all - I am in "jubilee". Sounds almost exciting and party-like!