Rest to regain your resolve

This year! What else can go wrong? Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg's death brought many condolences and hopes that she may rest in peace. The timing of her passing, as she well knew, brings anything but. We are on the brink of a pivotally important presidential election in the US, and her passing brings that into even sharper focus. And Covid. And back-to-school. And losing jobs and income and health insurance along with it. And a sinking economy. And fires, and earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Augh!! And your own personal challenges on top of it all, whatever they may be. 

This past summer, I read Trough by Judy Sorum Brown in one of my Lectio 360 sessions, and this week I was remembering it. Because, when it feels like nothing but craziness is what is going on, we need to overcome fear. We need to rest. Take 10 minutes each day and go away from "it all" -- just 10 minutes. Go somewhere else that's quiet, that's not your usual place. Close your eyes. Lie down if you can. Set a timer if you must return to the fear, the worry, the busy-ness. But do this. Do it to regain your sense. Do it to regain your energy. Do it so you can notice the shape of things. Do it to regain your resolve. 

And then go. Forward. 

Trough, by Judy Sorum Brown:

There is a trough in waves, a low spot where horizon disappears and only sky and water are our company. And there we lose our way unless we rest, knowing the wave will bring us to its crest again. There we may drown if we let fear hold us in its grip and shake us side to side, and leave us flailing, torn, disoriented. But if we rest there in the trough, in silence, being in the low part of the wave, keeping our energy and noticing the shape of things, the flow, then time alone will bring us to another place where we can see horizon, see land again, regain our sense of where we are, and where we need to swim.