A Patch of Sunlight

I love this image of Sabbath rest:

I remember with affection one thing about all those cats. Despite their widely varied personalities - as different as people, as the people you work with or live with - they had one thing in common: they all liked to sleep in the patches of sunlight that fell, bright and jut-angled, through our front window in the late afternoon of a winter's day...

That image comes to mind when I think of Sabbath: a patch of sunlight falling through a window on a winter's day. It's a small yet ample chunk of space, a narrow yet full segment of time. In it, you can lie down and rest. From it, you can rise up and go - stronger, lighter, ready to work again with vigor and a clear mind. It is room enough, time enough, in which to relinquish all encumbrances, to act as though their existence has nothing whatsoever to do with your own. It is an invitation, at one and the same time, to empty yourself and fill yourself. (Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath)