Today’s Prayer to Passage will be from the book “Orthodoxy” by G.K. Chesterson.

Today I pray, “Dear God, This weekend I am to rest. I cannot recall the last time I had an entire weekend — from Friday at 5 O’clock to Monday morning at my 7 bells alarm — that all I have on my list of things to do is to stay in bed, sleep, and rest my weary mind and emotions. It is long overdue, this rest. I have been giving to everything and everyone around me for months and months and months. Even when people are absent from my life or no longer in my schedule and routine, more show up for me to give my energy to! So… rest. It is time. Amen.”

Following my prayer, I held the closed book in my hands and opened it to reveal this passage:

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”
— G.K. Chesterson

What an odd passage to follow my prayer. So, in contemplative fashion, I sat with this one for a few minutes of review. I only feel a longing for this overdue rest because I have been giving to tradition. What is “expected” of me as a human being on planet earth. So, in a big picture way, as God is apt to illuminate, I am in the tradition of honoring my life by way of integrity. And integrity is having this be whole and complete. And having things be whole and complete is doing what I came here to do and being who I came here to be. And this can, at times, exhaust us. As we all feel this pull. In every placement upon this glorious planet.

Now, this is not to say that we cannot go beyond tradition. Ah, yes, this is highly highly encouraged! After all, this is expansion. This is the leading edge. And this is an evolution of integrity. Integrity is made to be forward-moving. And we were made to live in the fullness of our authenticity. Love wins, we know. And taking the time to love ourselves so we may go back to the traditions… and to the above-and-beyond-the-traditions? This is required of us, as well.