Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.
What if we could press pause on the noise of life, not because we earned it, but because we needed it? In a world where “busy” has become a badge of honor, and stillness feels like a luxury, I’d like to introduce a new holiday: Do-Nothing Day. It’s the one day where doing absolutely nothing counts as an act of healing, obedience, and joy.
Imagine a world where, for twenty-four hours, everyone steps away from productivity metrics, unread emails, and endless scrolling. No errands. No side hustles. No guilt. Just space to breathe, rest, and remember that we are human beings, not human doings.
Why We Need a “Do-Nothing Day”
Our culture has turned exhaustion into achievement. “I’m so busy” is now a humblebrag. Yet the Bible reminds us that even God rested after creation: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2) If the Creator of the universe took a day off, maybe we should too.
There’s wisdom in the rhythm of rest. It’s not laziness, it’s alignment. As Thomas Merton once said, “There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork.” The violence he spoke of isn’t external; it’s internal. It’s what happens when we forget to stop, breathe, and reconnect to our Source.
Do-Nothing Day would be our annual reminder that peace doesn’t cost money and rest isn’t earned, it’s received.
The Bonus Holiday: The Year of Jubilee
If I could invent another celebration, it would be the Year of Jubilee, an ancient reset inspired by Leviticus 25. Every seventh year, debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and land was restored. “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.” (Leviticus 25:10)
Can you imagine how freeing that would be today? Student loans wiped clean. Credit card balances forgiven. Mortgage debt erased. Not through politics or policy, but through a collective act of mercy and grace. In a world obsessed with accumulation, Jubilee calls us back to compassion, balance, and renewal.
As author Wendell Berry once wrote, “The earth is what we all have in common.” Rest, both personal and collective, reminds us that everything we have is borrowed from God. Do-Nothing Day and the Year of Jubilee would be two sides of the same coin: peace for the soul, freedom for the spirit.
Soul Insights
1. Rest Restores Identity
When we stop producing, we remember who we are. Constant striving makes us forget that our worth isn’t tied to what we achieve but to who we belong to. God didn’t create us to run on burnout; He created us to live in balance. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) True rest restores the version of us that’s been buried under performance.
2. Silence Speaks Louder Than Noise
Doing nothing opens up sacred space where we can finally hear God’s whisper. It’s not always the thunder or the fire that reveals Him, but the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12). As philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said, “If I were a physician, and if I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.” Sometimes healing begins when we finally stop filling the air with our own words.
3. Forgiveness is the Greatest Freedom
The Jubilee principle wasn’t just economic , it was emotional and spiritual. Forgiveness, whether of debt or of one another, releases the chains of resentment. It’s the spiritual equivalent of unclogging the arteries of the heart. When we forgive, we let life flow again.
4. Simplicity is a Spiritual Practice
Do-Nothing Day reminds us that joy doesn’t need adornment. A nap, a cup of tea, a sunset, those are sacred experiences when we’re present. As Lao Tzu once said, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Slowing down aligns us with the natural pace of divine order.
5. Rest is Resistance
In a society that profits from our exhaustion, choosing rest is an act of rebellion. To rest is to declare: I am not a machine. It’s a reclaiming of power from systems that value output over soul. The Sabbath wasn’t created to restrict us but to liberate us from becoming slaves to our own ambitions.
Final Thoughts
Do-Nothing Day would not be about laziness, it would be about liberation. A global Sabbath where we remember that peace isn’t earned through productivity but through presence. And maybe, every seven years, we’d mark a Jubilee Year, where forgiveness, rest, and renewal sweep through our lives like a holy wind.
Because sometimes the most radical thing you can do in a world that never stops moving is to stop and be still.
Your Turn
When was the last time you did nothing, and felt no guilt about it? Try scheduling your own mini Do-Nothing Day this month. Turn off the notifications, put away the to-do list, and simply be. You might just rediscover the joy that no paycheck can buy.
By the way…
Before you go, grab a cozy seat and check out my book 17 Syllables of Me on Amazon; it’s a soul-to-paper kind of journey.
If you love thoughtful reads with a heartbeat, come visit my blog SoulPath Insights, where life lessons meet coffee-shop conversations.
Thank you for taking the time to read! 🤗
© 2025 Amelie Chambord
Soul Path Insights 
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