4-letter words

I'm not known for being expressive, but at the height of a few bouts of illness I was close to using a few 4-letter expletives to vent my emotions.

Today I was discussing two more innocuous 4-letter words with some friends - work and rest.

I have now swiftly come to the half way point of my 'rest' in HK. How many people get the chance to take a break from work for 6 weeks? Even if they do, how many of them can designate such time to rest fully? So I should know something about 'rest' other people don't, since I have spent at least 3 weeks of my life doing it.

Work is an interesting thing. Many people do it but not many people like it. 'Work' isn't just the 9-6 job you do in front of the computer screen during the week. To me, taking the tube is work, cooking is work, cleaning the bathroom is work, shopping is work. I doubt if anyone can ever get away from doing some work in their life. Work can only become easier, but never ceases to be 'work'.

Rest, on the other hand, is a break from work. It doesn't necessarily equate to 'holiday'. I could take a 'holiday' to Paris and still have to worry about accommodation, transport, food, language, navigation etc the whole time. Work has just taken another form; it hasn't disappeared with the notion of holiday.

God has Sabbath day to rest after 6 days of Creation. We have something called the weekend, but sadly for the majority of us it's the time to deal the with the aspects of life outside our job - relationships, friends, it could be more hard work.

I admit I still don't know how to balance work and rest fully, if it's the case that we can truly rest during our busy earthly lives. Robert de Niro said, "You'll have time to rest when you're dead." I doubt there will be a lot of TVs and sofas in heaven where people just 'rest'. There should still be work in heaven, and work is not necessarily a bad thing. I agree that we should make the most of our time on earth, but to make the most of it we need regular rests, we need to recharge our batteries. That's the way God designed our bodies to work like. Rest should be something that uses your physical body and spiritual mind a different way, without tiring you out, be it watching TV, sleeping, going for a walk. Sometimes when I feel I need a rest I go for a run. Controversial I know.

About how my 'rest' is going? I think I'm working hard to make sure it's going well! I went to Victoria Park on Friday, the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens yesterday, and the Kowloon Park today. I think I visited more parks in HK in the last 3 days than I did the last 3 years...I think I deserve a medal.

Also, I have not looked at a single work email for 3 weeks. I only occasionally look at my company's share price to make sure that it's still there. I hope to hang on for another 3 weeks. I think I deserve another medal if I manage to.