Do not take weariness as a sign of weakness.
Inhale.
Exhale.
This is really important,
So let me repeat it.
Do not take weariness as a sign of weakness.
Take a deep breath in.
Let it all go.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Life is feeling more fractured and fractious than normal.
And normal is what we want to get back to.
But from the sounds of it,
That might not be possible.
Or at least not for a very long time.
And we've either heard the news or we are living the news.
As I just heard it said recently,
There are lives and livelihoods at stake in all of this.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There might be times when you can handle it,
When you are feeling strong,
Fierce even,
Ready to face down whatever is coming your way.
And then there might be times when you feel trapped,
Helpless.
You are ready to go back to your life,
But you can't.
You just can't.
So your spirit might be weary,
Tired of doing the work,
Of convincing yourself that it's all going to be okay.
That it's worth it.
Inhale.
Exhale.
When I was a first year in college,
My professor had us read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
Frankl,
A Jewish psychiatrist,
Was in a concentration camp in World War II.
His words moved me then as an 18 year old,
And I find his words critical now.
You see,
Frankl observed something very important in the camp.
That often the difference between a person living and dying was whether or not that person could find meaning,
Hope.
Those without hope often didn't make it.
Those with meaning and hope fought on and often survived.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Do not take weariness of spirit as a sign of weakness.
This is hard,
And life can often be hard.
But that's when we need to remember the words of Viktor Frankl,
And I quote,
When we are no longer able to change a situation,
We are challenged to change ourselves.
He also said,
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,
The last of the human freedoms.
To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
To choose one's own way.
You might be weary in body,
Mind,
And spirit.
Inhale.
Exhale.
And you might even be thinking,
I'm so tired that finding meaning is the very thing I can't do.
I hear you.
It might be helpful to frame this in such a way that finding meaning is the work before us.
If you had crashed your airplane into a snowy mountain,
The work before you would have been to find a way to stay warm,
To find water to drink,
Food to eat.
That's what you would do to survive.
Right now,
Finding meaning is the work we need to do to survive.
Not only this current moment,
But all kinds of things.
There are so many times I wish I had a magic wand,
And I wish I had a meaning magic wand right now.
You are weary in spirit.
Poof.
Here is some meaning to help you make it through.
But I don't.
And anyway,
Meaning is a deeply personal thing.
And yet I've read that there are things that can go a long way in helping a person to find meaning.
One is to be grateful.
And that might grate on your nerves as much as me sitting here telling you to find meaning.
But being grateful has been proven to work again and again.
Focus on what is good.
Hold on to that when you are so very weary.
Another thing is to serve.
Do something kind for someone else.
Again,
It's been proven when we do something good for others,
We feel better.
And we make the world better for someone else.
Inhale.
Exhale.
So maybe this is the work before us.
To find meaning.
To serve.
To love and remember that you are loved.
Yes,
It can be work,
And that means we can get weary of the work.
But it's the work that will save us.
To look around with wonder.
Recall what brings joy.
To remember that you are a beautiful spirit.
There is none other in the world like you.
Remember that.
Inhale.
Exhale.
And I'll leave you with one of my favorite Viktor Frankl quotations.
What is to give light must endure burning.
Namaste.
