“See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.”
– Matthew 6:28

I spent Monday with a friend whom I don’t see as often as I’d like. We sat outside in the shade while our daughters splashed in the last shimmers of summer. It’s been a busy season for her: always steering one child here or there, another starting behind the wheel, the eldest packed and gone for the first year of college. “This is the only time all summer I’ve sat down,” my friend said, sinking deep and slow into the weave of a warm lounge chair. I said little, and yet she relaxed into my every word, even into the pauses between the words.

This long weekend we welcome another friend and her daughter from the Midwest. She told me that since I saw her last in May she’s sold her home, moved into another and transitioned her father into a retirement center. I’m plumping up the sofa bed so she can sink into the quiet of this simple house and not lift another thing, at least for four days.

We have an enormous capacity to love one another simply by showing up. Really, that’s all I ever do! If you grant yourself the time to show up here in return, I have two things for you to relish over this Labor Day Weekend. They are the unlabors of my love, and they will bring you rest.

7 Tips Inspired by Monasteries to De-Stress Your Home – My latest column on the Huffington Post will convince you that you don’t need to escape to a nunnery (just yet). This article started as a short interview in the September issue of Whole Living magazine when I realized that the same devotional practices that turn monasteries into bastions of serenity can relieve the mindless stress that infiltrates our home lives. Please read it over and over; share and circulate; take it to heart and let it work in mysterious ways.

Zen in a Basket of Laundry – Click on “Listen Now” and relax into this hour-long conversation on New Dimensions Radio. It’s my new, very favorite of so many interviews I’ve had in the last several months, because it’s like a conversation between you and me about life, love, happiness, meditation, teachers and time. You can stream it for free as often as you like over the next two weeks. Listen and see if you don’t become unlabored in its soothing sound. Listen because I asked you to and because you’ll hear me say, “Being asked to do something is a very good reason to do it.”

Return. Rest. Refresh. Happy Unlabor Day.

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