I’m tired. Mentally tired. Physically tired. Bone dead tired. Weary. Depleted. Exhausted. We all report being EXhausted. Does the word hausted exist? Sometime in the early 1500’s, some priest-scribe first used the Latin form exhaustus: to empty out. Delve deeper and the word probably started as exhaurire, which means to draw out or to scoop up. There is a deeper root word: haurio which is used to describe drinking or swallowing…to take IN.
There was a haust before there was an exhaust. It was an origin word that described being filled up, to consume, to take in. Haurio.
What fills you up? What restores you? What replenishes?
Binge-_____________. (fill in the blank). Drink, eat, watch Netflix, sleep. Literally, we stuff ourselves trying to fill up. But it rarely works. It does not restore. We wake up the next day, still exhausted.
What fills you up? Space. Stillness. Quiet. Contemplativeness. Trim bonsai trees, weed a garden, knit a sweater. Ride a tractor. Read your Bible. Meditate. ALLOW yourself to be truly and completely emptied out. And then for me…permit myself to be filled up with goodness, joy, gratitude, awe, wonder. I make the mistake of thinking the quickie, drive-thru equivalent of restoration is a TV remote and Netflix. Once upon a time, it was World of Warcraft. But, to be truly, deeply and effectively restored….I must fill up on the good stuff.
I am empty. And it is time for a fill up. What is your good stuff?