A gift for the tired soul
I listened to a reading this morning that resonated with me about rest and what it feels like to live and push through in this tired world.
Collectively we are all searching for a way to be heard . We want our life to have meaning. We want others to hold space for our grief, our loneliness, the ache and longing in our hearts. I have found solace in the words of John O’Donohue . I discovered his writing when I read his essay entitled “The Question Holds The Lantern” and it came to me at a time when I was searching for something beyond myself to cling to.
I think that part of what I have been experiencing over the close of 2021 and the entering of 2022 has been a deep look into my life’s experiences, and what have they taught me about where I am now. I’ve been doing a lot of deep work, that is like medicine for my weary soul. And while it’s exhausting, I know that there is healing, or at least an awareness that is taking place that has become a compass for me.
If you are tired, and long to be seen, read this poem and feel some comfort here.
For One Who is Exhausted, A Blessing
When the rhythm of the heart
becomes hectic.
Time takes on the strain until it breaks,
then all unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless,
increasing weight.
The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride
before
now become laborsome events of the will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued had gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drive has relinquished.
there is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it flows soft and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Take time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.
