On this Christmas Eve, I think back to the story of the birth of Jesus and realize that on this day many years ago, Mary must have been in labor, her body preparing for childbirth. Her pituitary was signaling to her body that it was time by producing oxytocin, and her uterine muscles responded contracting and dilating her cervix to allow her infant passage into this world.
As we prepare for the birth of hope into the world once again, how do you need to prepare your body for its arrival?
Grief has taught me the centrality of rest by demanding it of me. When my grief is heavy and painful, I have no option but to rest my body and to be with it as fully as possible. Surrendering to that need has offered me so much; there is real fullness and vitality possible alongside and through my grief, but only if I honor my need to rest, as fully and often as I can.
-Rose Gallogly (CLF)
How have you rested to allow your body to heal from grief?
It’s possible to stop. To take a break. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to feel guilty about it. No matter how important tasks seem in the moment, know that your ability to pause and remember your breath will always be a place to ground you. To remind you that our breaths are finite and you are worthy of taking each and every one of the slowly and deeply as you can.
-JeKaren Olaoya (CLF)
Pause and remember your breath today.
In the Northern Hemisphere, we rest in sacred, healing darkness on the longest night of the year today. In the Southern Hemisphere, we celebrate in vibrant, warming light.
How can you honor both darkness and light today?
“I wish you rest today. I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living. You are enough. You can rest. You must resist anything that doesn’t center your divinity as a human being. You are worthy of care.”
-Tricia Hersey, from the introduction to Rest Is Resitance
How do you know yourself as worthy today?
