I am feeling like I need a week of rest (a month?) rather than just a single day. When I chose my word for the year, retreat, I mistakenly imagined it would mean a year of rest, kind of like an extended spa vacation, (not that I’ve had one of those, but my guess is you’d feel restored by it). Instead, it has been an intense year of study and practice, of coming up against my edges, practicing courage and facing my fear, and I feel like I need “a vacation from my vacation.” I am tired and raw–but now I remember that this is always how I feel after a retreat. The fire of the focus during that time always burns me out, requires gentle recovery.

The books I’m reading right now tell this story, where I am, what I’m working on, struggling with: smile at fear, broken open, daring greatly, and living beautifully–I’m still working on that last one, the full title of that book being Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. May we all have the courage to do so, and get the rest we need to be strong when things are difficult and to notice when things are beautiful, to open our hearts to all of it, the tenderness and the terror.