When I was out and about this week I noticed that many farmers are busy bringing in their harvest. It occurred to me that at this time of year those involved in the harvest are working extra long hours. Time is needed to carry out that activity in addition to their everyday work and there is not very much left for anything else.

But farmers are not the only ones who have busy times like this. We all experience times in our working lives when there is more work to be done than time will allow. However, it does not matter how much work we have to do, we need time to rest – to refresh ourselves, to spend time with families and friends, so that we stay healthy and sane.

The bible tells us to keep one day a week free from work, to keep the Sabbath. Increasingly our society has moved away from such observance and the Sabbath is now just an ordinary working day for so many people (some are engaged in vital services but most allow us to avail ourselves of their efforts in the name of ‘leisure’ pursuits).

The loss of this one day in the week where rest was the norm is keenly felt by many - but it is unlikely to return. In its place perhaps we need to examine our lives and, however hard pressed we feel in our work, to make more time to spend in quietness, to relax and to appreciate the natural world around us.