What's the difference between meditating and just goofing off?

I love August, the hot humid days are the swan song for summer and the cool nights, a harbinger of the crisp days of autumn. Well, I was on vacation in Maine for a few days and as the man at the little gas station in Winthrop said when I told him I loved the cool weather, "Better enjoy it, winter is just around the corner." It sounds even better with the downeast accent of a true Mainer, or is that Maniac?

Anyway, I was the house guest and cook for my Navy buddy Steve and his family for several days. Steve and I go back to the early 70's when we were stationed in Italy, and the friendship has lasted over the years with shared family vacations and lengthy phone conversations about any number of topics. The only problem, is that Steve does not know how to relax. He is the stereotypical hard working self reliant New Englander. The day I arrived he was wrapping up a two day seminar for High School AP US History teachers at Colby College, Steve is the Maine coordinator for AP History certification. The next morning we had an appointment to meet with the surveyor and walk the 20 acre property line on the land his mother had given him on the family farm. And the next was work on the Mustang he was restoring with their son Keith. My plans for some relaxation was getting lost in all this work.

It was then that I remembered a previous vacation when I helped Steve auger post holes for the deck foundation on a mother-in-law apartment above his garage. I had brought four books to read and my kayak to get in some water time and meditation and this was devolving into another work party. Fortunately none of the family are early risers, so I had time to myself after six and before nine a.m. I did get three of the four books read and some time was spent on Echo Lake, listening to the loons and admiring the changing color of the sky in late afternoon. And the several evening when the sky was clear there was time to enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower and the opaque path of the Milky Way overhead.

With a goal of 'clearing my head' and getting some thoughts together for both Men's Group and the Adult Christian Education classes, I felt that this was in no way just goofin' off. It was a productive time as well as time for reflection and restoration. But here a strange question pops into my head, "What is wrong with just goofing off ?" We get so caught up in being productive that we have justify any time that does not show up on the balance sheet as time well spent. Sometimes, just unwinding and relaxing is time well spent; after all, recreation is time spent in re creating our self and our world. For all the obsessive type-A people we need to remind ourselves of a very important passage from Genesis: " By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work" (Gen 2:2). So, my reply to anyone who accuses me of just goofing of, my response is, "No, I'm just being Biblical !"

peace,

Deacon Clyde