Radical rest and recreation and their spatial permutations

Abstract

In December 2022, the team at Geographical Research-including members of the Institute of Australian Geographers and staff from Wiley-came together in celebration of 60 years in the life of the journal. Held online, the short event enabled us to launch an editorial pick of 10 years' of work on geography published between Volumes 51 and 60, and those are now available online here. It was a lovely occasion and provided an opportunity to show what is a newly refreshed look for the journal.And then many of us went through that mad period of days or weeks before what is often a collective break at the year's end so that we could 'down tools' for a period of time. A necessity? Absolutely, but also something not to be taken for granted given how many people throughout the world work with little rest and limited labour protection.I always take more time than I'd like to wind down, and it interests me that many of the strategies I use to do so are spatial in character-at least they seem so to me, but then I feel as though I am permanently enmeshed in a geographically inflected ontology.So, for example, I make certain that every last 'species' of work that might have crept out of the home office into the rest of the house is rounded up and gently enclosed back in that office, and the door is then shut for the duration. I turn off all notifications and 'park' them in cyber space after setting up out-of-office messages that I hope give comfort to those who are still submitting work to the journal in the team's short absence.And then … And then I garden with an enthusiasm and focus that is soothing-therapeutic even-and that provides immediate gratification and connection to the elements and the more-than-human. I read light-hearted works with a mix of voraciousness and languor and then, when the temptation to nap becomes too compelling, I 'map' the inside of my eyelids. I reintroduce myself to forms of food preparation and cooking that engender ease and slow pace. And I mooch with friends over coffee or I simply sit in the garden and work to embody the verb be rather than do.Rest is not, I think, a way of being that many of us are especially adept at, and I would certainly place myself in those ranks. I struggle to stop and am always and inevitably deeply grateful that I have. Rest enables