There’s a tiredness that comes
All sleepy limbs and weighted lids
From a spectrum of sources so vast
We don’t always have a name to give it
Some days it’s a tiredness born from trying
Or perhaps, waiting
Maybe, worrying
Likely, working
Hoping too hard
Being strong without support
Always the responsible one
Tiredness from resilience
Forever doing the damn work
Feeling it all
Planetary pains and human hardships
A tiredness comes
Wherever it comes from
Making home in our bones
Tiredness begins to make itself known
We sometimes say our bodies don’t speak to us
We can’t always translate the flush in our cheeks
Understand the pins and needles that hum legs into numbness
Back pains that alarmingly buzz all up through the spine
Words larynx-stuck looking for a release
Maybe, that’s the language tired speaks
We don’t always know how to answer back
Forcing bodies into doing, instead
The impatience of rest prodding our clenched shoulders
Productivity urges ringing in the disc-shapes of our eardrums
Fighting with thoughts that tease us into guilt
”You’ve got to keep going,” squawking from our interior
Sometimes we do
Sometimes we can’t stop
Your tiredness still needs you
Maybe not only in naps or days off
Maybe not only in massages or coming to a halt
Maybe the answer comes from one less lap on a run
Thumbing through the paged respite that poetry gifts us
One word statements of no
Watching a bee deliver pollen from one flower to another
Slower sips of steaming tea
Crying, just because
What if we gave in to our tiredness?
Settled and surrendered into it
Even when we don’t know how to befriend it
Too weary to get curious with it
But, we just let it…
Be
Let ourselves be held by the sweetness that drips into our days
From meals cooked for us, to checking-in texts
Uninhibited laughs when we only have capacity for the silly
Life continues
We continue
Even when we pause and let the clock slow
Enough can look like continuing to breathe
22,000 breaths per day is plenty
Electric signals of the heart beating away
100,000 beats per day is plenty
Existence is enough
It really is more than plenty.
Thank you for reading this week’s letter, friends. Some news for you, I launched my podcast Reimagine It All this week. A dinner party-meets-salon for the mind, where lingering conversations, unfinished thoughts, and expansive ideas are served up as ways to reimagine life’s biggest themes.
You can listen to the first episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you listen. On the first episode, I explore: Reimagining Trust: When life lets you down, how do you find it again?
I can’t wait for you to listen!