I know you're weary
Hey!
Do you
like me
feel just. so. damn. tired?
I am here to honor that for both of us.
We are doing our very best to keep on keeping on,
but the weights of the world are especially heavy these days,
and our fellow travelers are especially weary.
Yes, there are glimmers of hope and goodness,
but they co-exist with the weariness.
I saw both in the eyes of the pharmacist
who gave me my long-awaited vaccine this week.
I felt both in the auditorium packed with donated food
being distributed to hungry families.
I read both in the email from my kid's teacher
who's been managing not one but thirty classrooms all year.
*
Most of the time, I can find and magnify and stoke the glimmers
of goodness
progress
hope
evolution
humanity
love.
But sometimes
when Spring is slow in coming (April = Cruelest Month),
when the news is overfull with white violence,
when I'm swimming, daily, through so much collective weariness,
those glimmers elude me.
*
What to do?
Well. Know this:
Our dominant culture doesn't handle Weariness well.
It expects us to be machines that turn off and on,
rather than humans that need nurturing and rest.
It calls sloth a Deadly Sin,
rather than a logical consequence of overwork.
It asks “What's wrong with YOU?" when you're tired,
rather than “What's wrong with our world?”
And it exalts PRODUCTIVITY above all else.
Above wellness, justice, kindness, balance, love.
*
So.
If you find yourself exhausted,
the dominant culture would like you to see that as YOUR problem, and exhorts you to
push through
take an ibuprofen
get your shit together
get over it.
But it's not your problem. It's OUR problem.
We're together in this.
Here's what we can do:
Listen to our bodies and heed their desires.
Give ourselves - and each other - a break.
Blame NO ONE for our kids' Ds in Social Studies.
Encourage one another to rest.
Feed our heart-souls
with whatever fills us up:
books and music
plants and pets
alone time or family night
naps or gentle walks.
If we want more glimmers of hope and goodness and generosity,
we have to be rested enough to see them
so that we, too, can generate them.
And if,
as the saying goes,
we're all just walking each other home,
trust that when you stop trudging for a moment
and take a breather
you are creating that very necessary opportunity to REST
for your fellow travelers.
It's perhaps the only way we can make things better.
Thank you,
Natalie