This afternoon, I am taking my computer outside to write where I can look up at the San Gabriel mountain range that rises a block or two away from the backyard. I need the fresh air and I think you probably do as well, wherever you are staying. In the background I hear a plane overhead (someone is still flying somewhere). I hear some hammering on a neighborhood house (someone is renovating nearby). I hear the trash pickup trucks in the distance (the city still has services). Faint human voices and more distinct bird conversations chirp directly overhead (communication continues). Life goes on and beauty, really, is everywhere.
The first week of 2021 has been explosive. The U.S. hit its highest daily death toll since the onset of the Pandemic. The Capitol building was breached by riots. Congress and the Senate weathered attack and despite their shock, picked up their work and continued, while the world waited and watched, until the work was done. After almost a year of stressful events in the unfolding and surging of the Pandemic, everyone is exhausted--even if we are not on the front lines of action, we are all on the front lines of witnessing, of carrying our lives forward, of adapting, surviving and hopefully, supporting something both good and stable. So if you find yourself immobile right now or slow and sluggish, or anxious and unfocused, you have every reason to be that way. Stop, or at least slow down, and let yourself catch up.
This is not about acquiring more information. This post is about rest and recreation in order to shore up our resiliency. You have your spiritual practices, they will keep. Right now, rest, release, wander among the things you most enjoy. Your spiritual practice will pull you back and give the balance. You are included in the whole of life and the whole is within you. Take a fresh breath; then we all begin again. (Susan Nettleton)