Winter: Practicing a Pause
Focus
An extended winter pause in the vineyard is required for healthy flourishing and fruitfulness. Grapevines thrive in a climate that allows for dormancy or rest.
The same is true for humans. We need rest. We need to take regular pauses or our life and our work would come to ruin. Rest can feel like a limitation, but it is really a gift.
To rest well takes practice.
A Pause
My birthday is right between Christmas and New Year, the timing of which has often been frustrating. My mom did her level best to NOT wrap my birthday presents in Christmas paper, but sometimes it happened. My friends were often out of town when I was a kid, which prompted at least one awkward party where my mom generously invited a bunch of little kids from the orphanage to my party just so we’d have attendees. In recent years, I’ve taken to hosting a “Cake and Champagne” event around my birthday, which suits me just fine.
This year I asked for a promise of “Dinner and a Symphony” for my birthday present, which happened in January. My husband and I enjoyed a nice dinner of tapas and a short stroll around the Healdsburg Plaza and a coffee before setting out to the lovely Green Center at Sonoma State. As we settled into our front-row seats in Choral Circle East, I could feel the unique energy of a relaxed and yet awakened soul. I read through the concert notes with the cacophony of the musicians warming up as background music. I was especially looking forward to hearing Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, which would come after intermission.
I enjoyed a glass of bubbly during intermission and settled back into my balcony seat. Leaning on the railing, I had a good view of the guest conductor’s face. He raised his baton and the hall went quiet. Looking around at the musicians, he smiled, almost imperceptibly gave the tempo, then brought his baton down for the first note of the Allegro. I was transported. The warm, sunny skies of Italy seemed to open up overhead, and I couldn’t stop smiling. Then came the more solemn Andante movement that was inspired by a religious procession in Naples. The third movement, as a minuet, set the stage for the final Presto movement, a wickedly fast combination of a saltarello and a tarantella.
Pausing between each movement, the conductor kept his baton in the air, signaling there was more to come. During these pauses, the musicians and the audience both had a chance to savor the last movement, catch their breath, shift positions, turn the page, and prepare for the next movement. It is so tempting to applaud the beauty and effort of each movement, but everyone knows to hold the applause until the end. Once the last note stopped shimmering in the air, the conductor let his arm drop, and we all stood and thunderously applauded the composer, the musicians, and the conductor.
As a Metaphor
Pauses in music don’t just happen between movements. A musical rest is every bit as important as a note when composing and playing music. Without the rest there would be no distinction, no time to savor what was or prepare for what is to come.
Like music, the vineyard has a rhythm of pauses. Every year, for an extended period of months, the sap in the vines retreats and rests in the trunk, gathering energy for the next season of fruitfulness. Even during the growing season, the vine’s leaves, which are actively involved in photosynthesis during the day, change the rhythm every night to respire. Without these macro and micro pauses, the vine’s energy would rapidly decline and there would be little to no fruit worthy of making wine.
An old vine resting in the winter season.
The same is true for humans. We need rest. We need to take regular pauses or our life and our work would come to ruin. Our body needs rest or it starts shutting down. Our brains need to take a break, or we stamp out all creativity. We need to push the emotional pause button to be healthy.
We can all agree rest is mission critical, but often we don’t actually choose to rest. In fact, we applaud people who seemingly never rest, as if they have no limits. We say rest is good, but then we act as if taking a break will destroy everything we are striving for.
Rest feels like a limitation, but it is really a gift. A vineyard full of fruit at harvest is the reward of a vineyard that has rested well during winter, submitting to pruning what is no longer useful, trusting that a new season will come.
To Ponder
To rest well takes practice. The pressing question then is, how to rest?
Organizational
Consider what it might look like for your organization to prioritize rest. A well-rested work force is creative and energetic, resilient in the face of change or challenge. It is well documented that creativity thrives within limits. What if everyone worked fewer hours? Could they be even more productive?
Team
Emotionally healthy teams know how to take a pause, recalibrate, and come back together to solve thorny issues. Taking a pause and doing something besides working together is a great team building strategy. Consider bringing your team to a vineyard retreat! Browse the videos of seasonal retreats here.
Personal
Taking our cue from Jewish spirituality, my husband and I started to practice a type of Sabbath a few years back. Most Friday evenings, we will light some candles and say a prayer invoking a period of rest where we “lay down the tools of our labor” and enjoy creation. It has been quietly revolutionary for us. If you’d like to join us, pick up a Sabbath Stave in our store.
Sabbath Stave
Each of us must find a rhythm that will refresh our souls, restore our bodies, and renew our minds. We’d love to hear your ideas and experiences around the rhythm of pausing to rest.
With you on the journey,
Susie
P.S. Do you observe Lent as part of your faith journey? If you do, or if you’re just curious, we have a Lent Meditation resource. Join us for the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Sign up to receive a short, daily email with a meditation taken from passages in the Bible about vineyards and wine, and especially from John 15:1-17.