REST

A few weeks ago I had a dream that I had baked sourdough bread and was trying to deliver the loaf to a couple I know. On the way, I had to stop in at a friend’s house. My friend was with another family in the backyard and I couldn’t get their attention because they were riding down waterslides. Water was spraying on me, people were happily yelling and everything was a blurry fast pace. After the dream I realized that what I was really craving was to slow down and eat with the couple and that I was missing meaningful connection and relationship outside my immediate family. My dream also revealed that I was not connected with my own need. I had to dream about it for insight into what I was feeling.

Being connected to our needs and desires takes paying attention to and nurturing our inner world.  In music, a ‘rest’ is a length of time with no sound. Rests vary in length but when they are written between notes within a phrase or between phrases of music, they make the melodic line clearer. Without rests, notes would run together without pause or breath and become senseless. We NEED rest.

With all the turbulence and instability in the world over the last months, I've realized that inner peace is one of the hardest things for me to keep when things are so up and down around me. St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226AD) began his famous prayer: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace...". I can only be an instrument of God’s peace when I have peace to give.

I personally find my rest and inner peace with my journal, sitting at my piano or being in nature. It is here that I am reminded I am not governed by the speed, the ups and downs, or the bumps and external happenings around me. As I connect with the presence of God, I realize my inner need for connection is first met here.

Here is the link to my track ‘Rest’ from my album “Rather Have You Wild”.

I invite you to ‘just be’ and meditate on these words as you listen:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” Psalm 23:1-3 (NIV)