Permission to rest.

Well today marks 3 full weeks of being sick on and (only 3ish days) off. With being out of the house working/in class/driving 12 hours a day 4 days a week (and a full day of work Fridays), I am spent. I am THAT person going to bed early and waking (confession, I wrote "working" the first time--a sleepy and busy "Freudian slip") up tired. I've hit a wall.

I can't do it all. I can't plow through this year, and life in general, full speed ahead, all the time. I'm not wired to. We're meant to find a balance of work and rest. I have to make rest a priority even when duty calls. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is set your pencil down--or if you're like me--pencil in, rest.

Ironically enough, like I wrote previously, it is in bodily sickness my soul is refreshed. Today, in the morning fog of stuffiness caused by laying down all night (yes, from roughly 9:30 pm on) I found myself praying in gratitude.

I surprised myself by being grateful for being sick--for the reminder to slow down, to rest and reflect on this season of school and work. I am thankful that through sickness I have permission to rest--to remind myself that my body is weak, that it will fail me, that someday more than just my ears will lose their abilities--not in a morbid but in a meaningful--today matters way.

I'm also beyond grateful for the upcoming long weekend--praying that I'll heed these words and rest one full day. The weight of the world is not on my shoulders. This is one year, one set of classes, one weekend. REST.