A blessing for the exhausted and grieving.... here we are.

One year ago I blogged this blessing for the exhausted. And we all may still be. My conversation with leaders all over the world, and people in general, usually begins with conversations around the length of this pandemic and the maxed out capacity people have reached, or organisations are at.

There is a line in this John O'donohue blessing that speaks into 'weariness invading your spirit'. And I have found weariness does that when we do not steward what is happening in our body, then our souls.

In my coaching and pastoring, we are talking much more about grief. In March we focussed alot of our own energy on honouring the loss of our Anastasia Zoe during pregnancy eleven years ago.

But what I noticed most was the grief and loss conversations that others were relating to, about so many other areas of their life.

Grief emotions are not our master, but they do become our messenger. And then when we can express them authentically to another person, it creates a soul connection, that in and of itself is healing.

Often I begin my coaching or my pastoral sessions with a Welcoming Prayer where we stop, breathe and notice in our bodies where we have trapped pain. Then we welcome that message and take some time to look at the feelings wheel and ask what is the exact emotion that you are experiencing in your body. It is actually quite shocking what happens when people understand what they have been carrying.

So if anything on Grief and Loss relates to you right now, you could take the assessment and remove the word Pregnancy Loss and fill it in with a loss of any kind.

Attached to this PDF is also the Welcoming Prayer Model and The Feelings Wheel so that you can reference it at any point.

I have attached the link to download it here

This today my friend is for you .....and if you find yourself in any of the lines I am believing you will allow it to resonate deep.

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,

Time takes on the strain until it breaks;

Then all the unattended stress falls in

On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.

Things you could take in your stride before

Now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.

Gravity begins falling inside you,

Dragging down every bone.

The tide you never valued has gone out.

And you are marooned on unsure ground.

Something within you has closed down;

And you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.

The desire that drove you has relinquished.

There is nothing else to do now but rest

And patiently learn to receive the self

You have forsaken in the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken

And sadness take over like listless weather.

The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have traveled too fast over false ground;

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.

Learn to linger around someone of ease

Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,

Having learned a new respect for your heart

And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

JOHN ODONOHUE

Let me know how I can be standing alongside you in this season.

With much love always xxx