Let the bed hold you up

Dear friends,

I’m not sure if this note is for you or for me today. Maybe us both. I feel inclined to say: don’t try so hard. Have you ever been laying in bed with so much tension and concern holding you up that it seems as if someone could come take the mattress away and you would still remain?

Let the bed hold you up. God gives you grace for today and more for tomorrow, so exhale, relax, let the bed hold you up, don’t try so hard. Maybe this poem below will find its way to you as it has to me. You are dearly loved, and as my spiritual director says, “You have nothing to earn, and nothing to lose, and nothing to gain, and nothing to prove.” 

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

— “The Avowal” by Denise Levertov

You are truly, deeply loved.