Stillpoint Sunday
Rest That Heals
Dear Heart that carries more than anyone knows,
There is a quiet question I want to sit beside you with today, and I want to hold it gently rather than rush toward an answer. Sometimes it feels like we are carrying more than we can easily name, and I know how even the idea of rest can feel complicated when your heart is full.
Is This Rest or Escape?
Many of us don’t realize how often we confuse these two. When your heart feels heavy or stretched thin, it can seem like the best thing you could do is leave for a while. A change of scenery, a short trip, or even just getting out of your usual environment can feel like relief before you even go.
This weekend, I found myself standing right at that edge. I considered packing a bag and going somewhere because I believed that distance might soften what I was feeling. It felt logical, and in many ways, it felt deserved.
Something inside me asked me to pause. It was not loud, and it did not demand anything. It simply invited me to notice what I was really needing. I turned inward. My shoulder is still messed up from injuring it, and my body needed rest. In that moment, I realized there was a difference between wanting to rest and wanting to escape.
Rest Stays
Escape would have taken me away from my life, while rest was asking me to remain inside it. For this weekend, I chose to stay. I stayed in my beautiful sunny town, in the same spaces that have held both my grief and my healing. I let the familiar remain familiar instead of trying to outrun it.
Instead of filling the quiet, I let it be. I resisted the pull to distract myself. I chose not to scroll or reach for something that would pull my attention away from what I was feeling. I allowed myself to slow down in a way that felt honest, even when it felt uncomfortable at first.
My favorite thing I did while I stayed and rested was watching the four astronauts return from the moon. Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover said, "We're all one people," after witnessing Earth from space, emphasizing that from above, the planet looks like "one thing" with no visible borders. He added, "Homo sapiens, all of us, no matter where you're from or what you look like, we're all one people," reinforcing a message of unity, shared humanity, and togetherness. It reminds me of my favorite song Marshall and I wrote together, We Are All One.
I was glad there was a ceasefire during this time and that peace talks even began amongst world leaders. If we each led more with our hearts, there would be more peace. My dad read me the “Moomin Trolls” books in Japanese when I was a little girl, and I even wore my Moomin Trolls peace shirt that says, “I only want to live in peace and plant potatoes and dream” (I did grow up in Idaho after all). I even received a few comments on it at the local farmer’s market. I felt a shift throughout the weekend. Not immediate nor dramatic. Slowly, I felt myself coming back into my own presence again.
A Kind of Rest That Heals
Real rest does not numb what you feel; it reconnects you to yourself. While distraction can quiet the noise for a moment, it does not meet your heart where it is. It simply postpones the conversation. Rest, on the other hand, sits with you. It stays with you. It offers you a place to return to when you have wandered too far from your own center.
Banker and archaeologist John Lubbock on the value of downtime:
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”
Source: The Use of Life
Note
Real rest reconnects us with ourselves. It does not require a different place or a perfect plan. It only asks for your willingness to be present with what is already here. This is why my new podcast is called Still Beats, because in life, as in music, the pauses matter as much as the melody.
The Rest
If your heart feels tired today, and if you have been carrying more than others can see, you do not need to go anywhere to begin again. You can start right where you are.
Take Five Heart: Reset
Place your hand gently over your heart.
Take five slow, steady breaths.
Allow each breath to come and go without trying to change it.
Simply notice the rhythm that has remained with you through everything.
Resonance
What kind of rest does your heart actually need right now? Not the kind that pulls you away from yourself, but the kind that brings you back.
I am learning this in real time. I am learning that staying can be softer than leaving, and that rest is not something we find somewhere else. It is something we allow. Resting here. Resting now.
With love,
