Fasting From the World

My family and I decided a few months ago to start following the Holy Sabbath, which is one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by the Lord. I am not Jewish by birth, yet the thought of fasting from the world for one day a week felt necessary.  I needed my family to come together without the gadgets distracting us from being present with each other. It felt like a survival technique for the sake of my families happiness. The world is chasing after materialism and consumerism at every step. So each Friday as the sunsets, we set the dinner table, cover our heads, light the candles for dinner and withdraw from the outside world for 24 hours. Away from computers, phones, money, cars, movies, tv, shopping and social activities..... it is such a peaceful time for us, a time of renewal for us. We wake up early, pray together, take a peaceful family walk, play games with the children, garden, read books, sing and in general have a wonderful time together as a family. We used to spend our Saturday's rushing around town buying things, coming home exhausted and eating pizza in front of a movie to drown out in blissful unawareness.

God wrote the laws of life not in the pages of books, but upon the canvas of our hearts.  They are in our breath, our blood, our bones, our eyes and ears, and in every part of our being.  They are present in the air, water, earth, plants and in the sunbeams flickering on the edges of leaves.  They all speak to us so that we are reminded to fast from the world for a while. But we shut our eyes and ears so that we may not see or hear.  Yet in truth our happiness lies not in our senses, not in fulfillment of our lustfulness, nor in seeking after riches, or in feeling self importance. It lies in our spirit which is eternal and full of grace. If we feed the body from dawn until dusk but give not one drop of water to our soul, then we live in the kingdom of darkness wherein all unhappy things dwell.  If we fast from the world, and go by ourselves into quietness and show our fasting and prayer to no person of this world, then all the angels of our Earthly Mother and Father come and fill us, and we are nourished and satisfied.

If we do not fast from the world, we will forever be bound to it. Seek the fresh air of the forest and of the fields, and there in the midst of them you will find the angels of life.  Take off our shoes and breathe long and deep, and bathe in the holiness of life, away from the call of illusion.