A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted
Anyone feeing wiped out? Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! After this spring, traveling each and every week for the past few months, I am completely and totally and utterly exhausted! Please don’t mistake my exhaustion for complaining because I’m definitely NOT doing that. In fact, I am so very grateful for each and every opportunity that I have had to distribute books and meet so many of you. Now, however, it is time to recover and restore my health. Boy oh boy did I ever learn firsthand how difficult it is to live in an airport/on an airplane! So, this is my time to focus wholly on my health and it sure feels good! For those who join me in this state of exhaustion, here is a beautiful blessing. Please oh please don’t live here, but rather take the time to care (“excessively”) for yourself. After all, if I learned one thing after having had FBC, if you don’t have your health you don’t have a single solitary thing in the world!
A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted
When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the 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 will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued has 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 drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken for 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 all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking 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.
–John O’Donohue, from “Blessings”
I hope the rest is truly restful. You've done just brilliantly in promoting your book. As a fellow author, I'm truly in awe of your tour and your determination, Hollye. Congratulations again. 🙂
Thanks so much, Catherine! I am definitely moving into rest mode and am so excited about it!! 🙂
Boy did I need this TODAY!! Thank you for sharing. Your beautiful book is my companion on this cancer journey.I first checked it out from the local library, then knew I had to have my own copy, so I treated myself. Thank you for writing such a beautiful record of your own journey. So comforting to read the words of someone who has walked this path before.
Thank you so much, Nita. Your note means the world to me! I am so glad that it is a comforting companion for you. Take good care! Hollye
Ditto! I am there…utterly!
I think we can be grateful and tired at the very same time. We are, afterall, mothers, wives, writers, authors and friends to those who need us. In my case—-everyone! 🙂
You're so right, Prissy! 🙂
Hollye, thanks for sharing this beautiful poem. I loved all the imagery to nature and ourselves.
As in one example:
"Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself."
Absolutely! My pleasure, always. xx