“It isn’t for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.”
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh
How many of us are caught up in the whirlwind of life and don’t even realize how bone-tired we are? We push ourselves ever harder to perform, excel, overcome, be strong. I am reminded of the time I bought a new heart-shaped cookie cutter. After taking the price tag off, I scrubbed so hard at the gummy residue that I bent the heart. Hmmm. Don’t we often scrub so vigorously at our perceived imperfections, weaknesses, and failures that we push our own fragile and tender hearts out of shape? What if we took a lesson from farmers’ fields and gave ourselves permission to lie fallow for a while when we are spent and need to replenish our store of emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual energy?
When we notice we’re running on empty, it’s time to refuel. Hope doesn’t run on empty.
Many wounds happen quickly—someone we love dies suddenly, we lose our job without warning, the stock market greedily gobbles up our savings, or we receive a life-threatening diagnosis—while others, like overwork, stress, and depression-from-disaster-news-deluge, happen gradually. Whether the tearing of the fabric of life as we know it, or wish it were, is quick or measured, repairing our spirits always takes time, effort, concentration, and compassion.
Individually, and as a society, we aren’t good at allowing the time and space for repairing the ground of our being, and preparing it for a new way of living after loss and pain. James Hollis, author of Swamplands of the Soul—I love that title!—says, “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” Ah, yes. I would add that the wisest decisions come only after allowing ourselves time to heal and replenish.
In order to bring to fruition the seeds of hope we sow, our hearts must be repaired and prepared.
Excerpted from How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World by Sue Patton Thoele. Available on Amazon.
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