HOW TIRED WE ARE

We are TIRED.  The number of people - friends, family, clients, patients, co-workers - who have recently shared with me that they are tired, depressed, confused, find themselves "falling apart", has shown me something - and maybe not what you might expect; it has shown me that we are are alive and functioning!

It maybe that your life offers you many personal struggles. It may be that you are overworked, underpaid, unseen, misheard, struggling with physical or emotional or spiritual pain, have health issues, have family issues, have cars or homes that are in need of repair, or any number of so many possible difficulties may be in your orbit.   And any one of these things (and most of us face more than one at a time) might be what you place your sense of exhaustion or hopelessness upon.  And you might be one of so many of us, as several of my dear friends have recently shared with me, asking "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?"

Here is my answer to them and to any of you experiencing overwhelm of any sort:

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU.

In fact, what you are experiencing shows that your system is functioning perfectly - the world right now is not a place of ease or peacefulness. The fact that your system is registering this is proof that your humanity is alive - fatigue or despair or anger or grief - these are a healthy being's response to an unhealthy world.  Those who believe they are NOT affected by what is taking pace are the one's with "something wrong". 

Our physical forms are DESIGNED to PERCEIVE; designed to receive information from our environments, assess how these things affect us, and give us messages as to how to proceed. 
We hear, see, touch, smell, taste, intuit - and then our system tells us what to do:
We are sad: time to cry, mourn, go within and mend
We are hurt: time to retreat, be heard, be held and mend
We are angered: time to speak out, stand up for injustice, make change - and mend
We are exhausted: time to slow our intake, find darkness and warmth, sleep, dream and mend
We are indignant: time to right wrongs, make life changes, support others, collectively mend
. . . any experience your good, receptive physical form is functional enough to share with you - this experience IS YOUR HUMANITY, it is your being sharing with you what is called for.

And this:
Remember that you are bearing not only your own burdens and those of the people close to you, but because we are receptive beings, and because, ultimately we are part of the larger circle of life on Earth, YOUR GOOD, RECEPTIVE BEING IS FEELING THE TRUTH OF THE PAIN OF ALL WHO ARE SUFFERING AROUND OUR GLOBE RIGHT NOW, and that is no small thing.

From that perspective, the fact that you are scared, tired, depressed (etc) is A SIGN THAT YOU ARE ALIVE; It is the very opposite of "something wrong" with you - in fact, anyone who does not have access to feelings of despair or fatigue right now - the unfeeling, disconnected - those are the souls who are not functioning well.

To be tired when the world is so wrong for so many, when leadership has proven itself incapable of leading with heart and integrity, when media is untrustworthy, when political and economic and social systems no longer serve humanity - to FEEL TIRED from all this means YOU ARE FUNCTIONING APPROPRIATELY. 

Yes. We know that it is important to take breaks from horrors, to find specks of Light, to offer moments of respite or care for others and self, to find laughter in our long days, to eat well and rest if and when we can - yes, we must do these things.  But what we must not do, is add to our stresses by mistaking how we feel for something wrong with us; it is not.

And this:
EVEN IF you had NONE of the personal issues that feel so heavy, even IF there were no great world traumas in action at this time - feeling tired in the northern hemisphere, as winter deepens into itself, is not a thing that is wrong with you; it is a sign that you are in tune with the rhythms of nature, with the turning of the Earth upon whom we reside.  THESE ARE TIMES IN WHICH EVERYTHING IN NATURE SLOWS - RESTS - eats less, crawls into dark places, piles upon itself layers of warmth, and finds it's heavy form entering the dreamtime for what may now be some months.

I am aware that most of us do not have the privilege of hibernating for weeks on end.  But what we CAN do is be a little kinder to ourselves and one another. Recognize that moments of rest are not weakness, moments of despair are not "something wrong with us", but rather these are signs that we are alive, connected and that our good bodies and souls are doing what they were designed to do.

I wish you all gentleness in these ungentle times.
I wish you connection with what your heart most needs.
I wish you bits of sweetness among the thorns.
And that in your solitude you are graceful with yourself
And in your communing with others that you remember that no other is ever truly other.

Live as Heartfully as you are able Dear Fellow Earth Dwellers.
Love,
Rev. Maya