Well, hello there. My name is Morgan Harper-Nichols. I'm an artist and a writer, and this is a space where I share words that I hope can make a little room for you to slow down and take a few deep breaths as you prepare for whatever lies ahead. Thanks for being here today. And now on to today's episode. Whenever you start to feel like you're

pressuring yourself to have a plan that you can follow perfectly, I hope that you can remember

the natural rhythms of the earth, for they are so easily forgotten. As human beings, we often tend to

look to our routines for rhythms. According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, routines are a

sequence of actions regularly followed a fixed program. Now, routines aren't wrong,

but when they replace the natural flow of things, the natural rhythm of things, we start to feel

like we can't keep up, which leads to overwhelm. And this is why rest is important. Not only rest at the end of the day

when we're exhausted, but rest as a resistance to the cultural expectations that make us feel like

we must always be working. In a book I really like by Ruth Haley Barton, it's called Sacred Rhythms,

she makes this valuable point. Because life in contemporary culture requires us to move at high

speeds to be accessible nearly all the time, we need more extended times of solitude in which the r pms of body, mind, and soul

can slow down. So if you feel like you need more time to rest, you probably do. And that's okay.

Unquote. If you feel like you need more time to rest, you probably do. And that's okay. Unquote. If you feel like you need more time to rest, you probably do. And that's

okay. When we look to nature, we see rhythms of rest and how vital they are. However, when it comes to

our own lives, it can feel unnatural, especially in busy seasons. We understand that bears hibernate for months out of the year. We understand that bears hibernate for months out of the year.

We understand that deciduous trees surrender their leaves for winter. We understand that flowers

need suitable conditions before they can grow. And even then, most of them do not bloom all the same way for the rest of the year.

All around us, we encounter this unspoken truth. And yet, when it comes to our own lives,

natural rhythms can feel so wrong. A day off feels strange. A season off feels even stranger. If we're not in our

routine, it feels like we're doing something wrong. And that is where grace comes in. Grace reminds us.

No, the world as it is does not make it easy to engage in

natural rhythms, especially rhythms of rest. Many of us have things to do, bills to pay,

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