Reflection of the Week - 13 October 2025

By Father Richard Rohr

Posted Oct 13, 2025 in Faith

Work Hard, Rest Well

To overwork—that is, to spend time working for what one does not need—means that one’s life is out of balance, and it breaks the circle of harmony.  
—Randy and Edith Woodley, Journey to Eloheh 

Randy and Edith Woodley co-founded the Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Eloheh Farm and Seeds. They explore Indigenous values in relation to materialism and life balance: 

Materialistic values of Euro-American modernity are very different from our own Indigenous values…. Generally speaking, Indians are not materialistic. Materialism and consumerism are values imposed on Native Americans. The differences between Native North American values and those of the dominant society have been noted throughout our mutual history. Ronald Wright, author of Stolen Continents, writes of this conflict between settler and Native American understandings of wealth:  

The problems were those which arise wherever a stable, collective system and one based on expansion and individual profits collide. It was, for instance, impossible to run a store or plantation profitably without violating the [way] of reciprocity fundamental to most Amerindian societies. To obtain respect in the Native world, people had to redistribute wealth; for esteem in the white world, they had to hoard it. To a Cherokee, sufficient was enough; to a white, more was everything.

“More was everything”: what an apt description of the culture that surrounds us. And “sufficient was enough” gives us a window into Indigenous perspectives on consumption. The Cherokee concept of redistribution of wealth was at direct odds with the individualism of settlers. Until the nineteenth century, the Cherokees were able to retain their communal values. Remember: this was even after removal from their homelands. For a people to hold on to cultural values during times of extreme oppression, including forced relocation, is remarkable.  

After touring Indian Territory in 1887, Senator Henry Dawes described the Cherokees in this way:  

The head chief told us that there was not a family in the whole nation that had not a home of its own. There is not a pauper in that nation, and the nation does not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol … and built its schools and hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they hold their land in common…. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till these people will consent to give up their lands and divide them among their citizens so that each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much progress.

“Progress,” according to Senator Dawes, meant individualism, materialism, and even selfishness. None of these ideals are Cherokee values, nor do they represent the values of other Native Americans…. 

Native Americans are not immune to hard work. In fact, some of the hardest-working people we have known are Indigenous. But in order to maintain a life of harmony, there must be a balance between work and rest, or recreation.  

Work hard and rest well. 

Reference

Fr. Richard Rohr, Work Hard, Rest Well — Center for Action and Contemplation

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