In praise of rest

"I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may
be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a
journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a
damaged damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one
can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in
the changing light of a room." - May Sarton (A Journal of Solitude)

"Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected."  - George MacDonald

“Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one
consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family,
employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if
our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our
absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are
confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw
from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” - Maya Angelou (Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now)

"In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." - Albert Camus (The Minotaur)

"I said to my soul be still and wait... So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." - T.S. Elliot

"By letting go, it all gets done."  - Lao Tzu

Images above: Tilly living, as May Sarton advises, in the changing light of a room.