On Friday I was driving about doing pre-Shabbat errands and I was listening to the Roundtable on WAMC 1400 radio. An author was being interviewed, I didn’t listen long enough to catch his name or the name of his book, but it was about finding and maintaining passion throughout life. (I looked it up online afterwards: It’s Gregg Levoy’s book: “Vital Signs” about what inspires passion and what defeats it, how we lose it and how we get it back).
In the course of the conversation with the WAMC Roundtable host Joe Donahue, the guest author Gregg Levoy gave an example from parenting: When kids complain that they’re bored there are two approaches. Some parents give their child a list of ideas, a list of things to do. Another approach to is pick the kid up onto your lap, hold ’em tight, give a big hug and spend some quality time together. Then the kid runs off to do something else.. It’s the same with adults, said Gregg Levoy. Sometimes when we’re bored or restless or unhappy, instead of finding more things to do, we need to give ourselves a big hug, get back in touch with ourselves, get comfortable and then get out there and busy again.
I heard this just hours before Shabbat, and while engaged in Shabbos prep, and thought to myself: Wow, what a great analogy for Shabbos! It’s a great big hug we give ourselves each week, to refresh, reconnect, rejuvenate.