An Invitation to rest

Transfiguration Sunday: An Invitation to Rest
The Rev. Jenny Gregg

Tell me about your mountain.

Not the one you climb
in fervor or fear.
Not the one you ascend
ignoring
the ache of your heart,
as schedules,
appointments,
people,
whizz by
to prove a worth
of belovedness
that is already yours.

No.

Tell me about the mountain,
calling your name
in the midst of the fray:
the park bench,
the body of water,
the tree,
the sanctuary,
that offers the space
to exhale,
to release and
descend,
into the sacred within.

Tell me about the place you go,
with ear buds jammed in,
as you
rock out and sway,
with eyes closed,
sinking
into the song
that mimic’s
the sound of your soul.

Tell me about the mountain,
that brings you
into a dreamscape.[1]
Where life shimmers,
in the silence,
radiating
with a sparkle that
covers everything.

Tell me about the mountain,
that gives you the space
to re-member
the beauty
of being
breath-fully made.

Tell me what the Chosen One
whispers in your ear
as the noise dissipates
and you return to the Knowing[2]
that held the world
from the beginning.

Tell me about the peace that unfolds
the creativity that returns
the gifts received.

In this place,
the temptation is to stay.
To pull your hoodie
over your head.
Build a nest 
lined in comfort
and burrow down
while whispering,
“It is so good to be here.”

Here, on this mountain,
in this space set apart,
we are changed,
as Love
reveals herself anew.

So, tell me about the mountain
you leave reluctantly,
squeezing
all the goodness
out of every second
and what it’s like to
step back in
to the work at hand
now radiating
the luminosity of rest.


[1] Tricia Hersey. Rest as Resistance: A Manifesto.I have been listening to this book as an audio recording. In the introduction Ms. Hersey discusses the power of the dream space in the practice of rest as resistance from white supremacy and grind culture.
[2] Glennon Doyle. UnTamed. discusses “the knowing” in the chapter “Know.”