Liz Rasley

I’m doing this 5 minute writing challenge again..and late. Again. And this time, two for one, as I’m catching up from last week too, in the post below.But hey, hey, this, doing a Five Minute Friday actually ON a Friday is being on time to the party this week. It’s the little things, really.

A reminder in case you’ve missed it, this is the Friday Five Minute writing challenge, and the details are below in case  you want to play sometime…

This is a weekly writing “game”  from my bloggy friend Lisa-Jo Baker, who blogs (and writes heart-breakingly, beautiful words and stories) at http://lisajobaker.com/

So, here’s the challenge, should you accept it: you write for 5 minutes with freedom like you have no fear or shame.  And then you have to be brave (or at least pretend to be) and link up to her blog. Encouraging the writer who links up before you is part of the deal, too.  This last rule is crucial, as we all need to encourage others. Why encourage another writer? Because at one point or another in our lives, we all need encouraging too.

Each week is a new word, a new thought starter, and you have 5 minutes to write….and are you ready? go-

Rest

Rest is a pause, a step, a deep inhale of a fresh breeze before life picks up again, violent, overly dramatic and rushed in its efforts.

Rest, I keep thinking, is that elusive place-a spa in the mountains, alone, where you can breathe, eat spa food, hike through the deeply healing and intoxicating colors and smells, rejuvenating yourself.  A rest, a break, a pause, maybe a massage or two before re-entering the chaos of your daily life of grind, work, laundry, chores and the other duties that just come along side of living life, real, in the moment and in the reality of a family and children.

But that spa resort, though it may happen is not real rest, nor most days is it a reality.  Just like most days, my reality is far from being a princess, though my daughter believes otherwise.  If princesses do dishes and cusses at the laundry pile as tall as her then I must be of regal lineage.

Rest is really, the moment-

The moment of deep breath, of lightness, before the roller coaster comes hurtling down, projecting you back, deep into gravity and your body and into chaos.  Both literally and figuratively.

The moment, the last pause of your mother unusually smoothing out, calming down your long hair, laying it flat, before you walk onto the stage for graduation, a look of both deep thoughts and of last times and rest in her eyes, a look of rest before the second half of your life, her life, begins again.

The moment of the last party, the last hurrah of a place or a person or a time that you loved so much, somehow, but somehow, not really knowing how you know, is coming to an end, a sunset before the dark night, the bright stars and the unflattering reality of morning.

And rest, really is the last moments of a breath, the last big, deep push before a child is born, the last knowing moments before your life changes completely, again, and in all ways new and yet familiar again.

Rest is preparation, legs, patience even, that God gives us, that we need to take before life happens again before we are ready for it.