Sabbatical, of which I am now sharing, has its root in the religious word, Sabbath.

Despite what the church might have you believe, the Sabbath was not created to make us feel guilty for not being in certain places. It was not set aside just to be filled with ecclesiastical meetings or pious monologues.

It was given as a loving reminder that all of us need to take time to be re-created, to be resurrected to an awareness of how precious this life is and how important each tick of the clock can be.

For some of us, such an awareness is facilitated by some form of organized worship. For others, perhaps not. But all of us need the Sabbath, for without it we become tourists at living. We race by the sights but not seeing at all.

I lost my watch recently. Such an occurrence is not unusual. It is the reason, along with limited resources, why I never invest in any timepiece costing over 50 bucks.

It may also have beatific undertones.

For each time I misplace another watch, I discover again just how well I can manage without one.

Rather than racing from one appointment to the next, I tend to do a bit more strolling. A minute here, a half-hour there become less important to one without a watch.

Sometimes I think such a loss is a message from God.