July 2, 2006
"Time" magazine in its June 26th issue featured an essay entitled "Just Sit Back & Relax! . . . or why do Americans have to work so hard at taking it easy?"
I was reminded of a comment by a doctor friend who went sailing with me one day. It was in the early days of cell phones. He looked over at the skipper of another boat who was in a heated cell phone conversation and turned to me and said, "Doesn't he know that you come out here to get away from that?"
"Time" points out that Americans are allotted fewer vacations days (14 on average) compared with other industrialized countries - but ironically, we don't even use them.
Fr. Ed Palumbus, Pastor of Assumption Parish in Fairport, reflected on this same phenomenon in a recent column. He views Summer Vacation as a kind of "Sabbath" - perhaps "the last vestige of what it means to relax, withdraw and allow God to refresh us. God wants us to have the space and time to relax; to rest in the divine love and to cuddle up in God's lap like a child with its parent, knowing that the weight of the world is not really on our shoulders, even though at times it feels like it; to be secure in the knowledge that this is God's world and that if we do our small part - God will do the rest."
May this summer open up time and space for all of us to relax and enjoy God's love for each of us.
Happy Summer,
Fr. Chuck
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