Conversation #6 - Am I willing to reclaim time to think?

This is the 6th in my series of posts answering the questions from Margaret Wheatley's book, Turning to One Another.  By following this link, you can see my thoughts on the first five questions.  After this one, there are four other questions still to tackle...

Onto question number six - Am I willing to reclaim time to think?  There is rich irony in this question for my life right now.  The last question I answered was posted on February 25, so 48 days ago.  Interesting that in 48 days I was not able to make the time to respond to this question.  I guess that answers the question for me...

Seriously...As I write this, I think of Rodin's famous sculpture, The Thinker...Reflecting upon that sculpture, I wonder how it must feel to have the time to just sit there, hand on chin and think in quiet solitude.  As a Myers-Briggs introvert, I am one who draws energy primarily from times such as this.  Times where I am able to simply be alone with my thoughts, with my self.  There are others (extraversion) who fall towards the other end of this spectrum whose energy is drawn primarily from times with others, in large groups, etc.  Neither of these are on a good/bad scale, simply personality preferences - they simply are "preferences" to use the MBTI terminology.

So, for me, there is an innate need to have that time for my own "psychic" health.  I often feel it quite strongly when I do not have time such as that.  In my life, it has become a reality that I need to have discipline to take the time to have these sorts of periods.  If I do not have the discipline around doing that, it does not happen.

Its also a message from Scripture that falls into this question.  In the creation story in Genesis, when the sixth day was completed, God set apart the seventh day as a day of rest and renewal.  As the Old Testament recounts the formation of the Israelite community, the seventh day / sabbath day is set apart for humans, for animals, even for the land.  It is a day set apart for God, for rest, for a break from the everyday.  Yet Sabbath is in short supply today, both in the choices we make and the choices in life made for us.

I think that for me, it is a regular choice "To Sabbath" - sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't.  Yet, when I do not, I eventually come to a place where I feel it within me that something has been missed.