As we head into half term we’re thinking about rest, which is perhaps what educators need most right now.
In his book Consolations, the poet David Whyte writes about rest as something much deeper than a break from work. For Whyte, rest is a kind of conversation: between what we love to do and the way we love to be.
He suggests rest comes in layers. The first is simply stopping. A deeper rest comes when we stop relying on sheer willpower, the same exhausted will that has driven us through a long half term.
Deeper still, rest returns us to ourselves and to what really matters. In his words:
“Rested, we are ready for the world but not held hostage by it.”
In schools, it’s easy to treat rest as a reward we earn once the marking is done and the reports are written.
Whyte invites us to see it differently: not as a break from our work, but as what makes good work, and good care, possible.
So in this half term, it’s worth asking:
- What would it mean to truly rest, not just stop?
- What are you ready to put down, even for a few days?
And for those of us who coach: how much does our practice still lean towards more?
More actions, more goals, more progress.
What might open up if we helped the people we work with to rest, rather than to do?
With thanks to Helena Clayton for pointing us back to Whyte’s essay. From Consolations by David Whyte.
