Replenish  acrylic and pastel on canvas  16″ x 20″  Elena Stone

Sometimes words won’t come to me, but images almost always do.  And this is the image that came to completion as I found myself wrapped in the fog and fatigue of Covid aftermath, when every thought I attempted to formulate ended with REST, REST, REST. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that I’ve also been having conversations with friends about what it means to let go of the cultural imperative to be productive all the time, and to question whether driven urgency is the most fertile emotional foundation for building a more just and peaceful world.

In her book Rest as Resistance: A Manifesto, Tricia Hersey, theologian, performance artist, and founder of The Nap Ministry, dives deep into these issues, making powerful connections between the inhumane work ethics of modern-day capitalism—what she calls “grind culture”– and our country’s history of slavery and white supremacy. Drawing on traditions of Black spiritual leadership and her father’s work as a labor organizer, she poses the radical notion that resting is a way of reclaiming ownership of our bodies and nurturing our ability to imagine alternative futures for ourselves and our communities–a human right based in the notion that every person is enough simply by virtue of being a part of divine creation. While speaking explicitly as an African American woman, she emphasizes that this message has gifts for all. You can hear her elaborate in this challenging conversation here.  And for those who feel that rest is just impossible right now, there’s something there for you, too.

This all may seem counter-intuitive in the midst of a mid-term election that is rightfully sounding alarm bells about the need for an all-hands-on-deck approach to saving our democracy.  But as the artist Banksy reminds us, “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” I would add that rest is necessary not only to rise and fight another day, but to step outside the paradigms that exhaust us and prepare the ground for new possibilities.  Just as the earth needs to replenish and regenerate, so do we.  How to balance that with the urgency of our times is a question to gently grapple with.

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Land acknowledgment. Big Planet Love is created in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Massachusett people. We acknowledge the ancestors and current community members in gratitude and respect.

Big Planet Love is a project of the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University.