My seminary has a reading week during Fall and Spring semesters. It's a bit before the precise middle of the term. In some ways, it feels like a disruption--we had just been settling into a rhythm, and now, no classes. But my deeper feeling is appreciation for a pause: a chance to catch up, the possibility of working ahead, a chance for rest before the next push.
In the fall, my first reading week felt different from the spring term reading week that comes to an end today. In October, I was still working at my full-time job, so it was nice to have some breathing space. I hadn't gotten behind, so I didn't need the time for catching up. But it was good to have time to think about the tasks to come, to develop a plan. And it was nice to spend evenings with my spouse, even if we did nothing more than watch TV.
Today, reading week for Spring term comes to an end, and it's been different from October, different and the same. I no longer have an office that I have to go to for 9 hours a day; I no longer commute. I had visions of getting ahead, but I haven't made as much progress there as I had hoped.
I teach online classes, and I had 2 of those classes end on Sunday, so I had lots of grading to do. I also had a class that started on Wednesday, so I had a course shell to create. It was good to have time to do that, without classes that I also needed to attend and work that I needed to do before the seminary class met. It was good to have a break.
My spouse and I now have plenty of time together, so that aspect didn't change much. Our ongoing challenge is to remember that we're not on vacation, that we do have work to do. He, too, is teaching, but both online and in person. There's been at least once each day where I've checked to make sure that I'm remembering correctly what day of the week it is.
In some ways, I prefer the weeks where my seminary classes are meeting--it gives me more structure, and reading week reminds me of the usefulness of that structure.
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