Perhaps you are like me, and you find it difficult to pull up the sheets at night because all day long you’ve been pulling out the sheets with the line items, all the tasks to do. And you cross off a line, and feel momentary satisfaction, and then there’s another line and another sheet. Always another layer.
We can feel like failures with all these do’s and not enough us. Though you nearly caught up on the laundry, the bathroom floor is still covered with hair. Though you vacuumed two stories, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded again. Though you made all those phone calls and returned that litany of emails, the messages keep piling.
This world hammers hard, and it shows no signs of stopping, and we might believe sometimes it’s in the work harder, smarter, faster that we will dominate the list and bring this dirty home, this mountainous project into submission.
Yes, we know that sometimes rest is in laying down the paper sheets, or getting under the cotton ones that smell like night. Rest may feel like a reluctant need.
We might even know glimpses of the kind of rest that submits to daytime moments — listening to the music piped across speakers, spying that feather across the path, looking into the eyes of the little one smiling so big as if the whole world were her friend.
Sometimes rest is trust. Sometimes rest is noticing. Sometimes rest is still.
Then, sometimes rest is still working, doing this task without looking ahead to the next and the next. Recognizing the small things as big things. Feeling the ground under your feet, the pen in your hand as you do that thing.
That one thing.
So when we move across the floor or through the neighborhood or to the office, the moving is of a heart at rest. One that beats gentleness.
Yes, you are doing the work, but not through the pounding of obligation, failure fears and anxiety.
Your heart is one beating, loved, loved, loved.
I’m joining up again with the Five Minute Friday community of friends over at Lisa-Jo‘s where we write for five minutes, refrain from extreme editing and encourage one another freely. Today began with the prompt: REST. This morning, I wrote for five and then had to tinker for a while to make this whole deal make sense. I think I need some traditional body under the sheets kinda rest. Bless you this weekend in whatever forms rest may take for you.
Connecting through the power of stories written, spoken and lived
“Sometimes rest is trust” is the type of rest that is speaking to me today. Thank you for sharing your heart today.
Thank you, Amy, for your words. For me, it does seem to require a great deal of trust to let go in the way that allows true rest to happen. To trust that it can remain undone, to trust that I am enough regardless if I feel I’ve “done enough,” to trust that I am held even when I don’t feel deserving of the rest there in those hands.
The world hammers hard…so true, Ashley. I love and completely agree with you that rest (though frequently feeling like a “reluctant need” at the end of the day) CAN be lived, actively…in the moment, in the tasks, that we are in. Moving forward, yet without Looking ahead, there Can be a gentle rest for us. Perhaps it will flow more freely as we still the hammer of our minds. a lovely post, a good reminder. xo
Moving forward, yet without looking ahead — I am trying so much to grow in that, Mama. And that does seem to be where so much of the hammering is stilled…in the right here and now, doing the next thing we know to do. Yes, may rest flow — such a good prayer.
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing and reminding me of all those lovely things.
Thank you, Megan. Rest is certainly lovely when we’re able to receive it. I so want to more freely receive that gift!
Dear Ashley
Yes, I know what it is to rest by looking into the eyes of a child. When I look after my niece of 2 years, I have so much love and peace in my heart, resting in her innocence!
Much love xx
Mia
That is so sweet, Mia. Thank you for sharing that picture with me. :) Such peace and rest in the face of innocence — yes.
You bring me into a place of rest. The invitation to walk out the time spent between the horizontal rests, to beat to the sound of the Father’s whisper, you are loved….I accept and walk with you. Beautiful. Love seeing your smiling face at FMF
Thankful to be learning to walk these new ways with you. Love you, friend.
Yes. This: “Sometimes rest is trust. Sometimes rest is noticing. Sometimes rest is still.” Love this!
Thank you for being here, Karrilee. I truly appreciate your presence.
Oh Ashley,
I love the idea that rest is trust. I’ve just been repeating that over and over in my heart and mind, like a prayer, a complete knowing. This, my friend, this.is.it.
Thank you.
Holly, the way you speak back to me what you hear — I can’t tell you how much that blesses me.
Oh thank goodness for the sheets that give us rest – when we put them down or get under them. I love that!
Amen to that!
Oh, Ashley, love the lined sheets, the ones that yell at us what to do, and the cool sheets we climb beneath to forget all of the things to get done. Wow, I love the way you just write. Trust–yes, this is rest. So good, friend. I’m so glad you’ve stopped by my place once in a while–thank you so much for that.
So great to see you, Nacole. I’ll be visiting your place again soon. Thank you!
Truth…you are speaking truth. I’m a “dominate the list” kind of woman, for sure, and when lists start piling up at the end of the day with too many things not yet crossed off, my heart does beat faster. The next time it happens, though, I’m going to take a deep breath and choose to hear the word “loved” in its beating (instead of something like “oh-my-gosh-I-will-never-be-enough-to-get-all-of-this-done!”).
Oh, Abbey. What sweet victories when we choose to believe we are loved. When we choose to hear “loved” over the din of “not enough.” May you know it down deep in the beating, sister.
“Recognizing the small things as big things.” YES. Amen. This was a refreshing read…. thank you so much. :) (Stopping by from #FMF)
Thank you, Dana! Great to meet you through FMF!
Yes! Rest can take different forms… how perceptive that is. And all the time, we are hearts moving at rest, beating “loved.” I’m soaking in this, friend. Thank you.
Soaking in this, too, friend. How I need to keep remembering.
Needed this one today after my weary day. I’m laying down my paper sheets tonight and trading them in for the bamboo. Yes sis, bamboo. You will love them. I promise to share. xoxo Sleep tight
I have a feeling the bamboo and I will be fast friends. I cannot wait. Sleep tight to you, sweet sis.
a wonderful invitation to rest with a heart beating, loved, loved, loved. I will return to this. Thanks.
So glad you’ll be returning to this — and maybe to Portland, too. This summer?
Try being 84 ‘to boot,’I cain’t give nothin’ else but love, baby. Stuff sure gets piled up when intention gets in the way of action. I used to make lists, but all those tasks took longer than I thought, try priority lists, that doesn’t work either. Just sitting and laughing at it all seems to help as much as anything. Keep up the humor, my love.
Much love, grams
Can’t give nothin’ else but love baby. Seems like a good way to live to me, Grams. :)
Yes. I beat back the pies just a little and try to remain at peace. :)
Beat back the pies…now that’s a new one for me. :)