Are you tired?
I’m tired.
Often. Like every day I’m tired no matter how much sleep I get. Or don’t get, because I’m in pain or too hot or too cold. Autoimmune disease is a real picnic, if you don’t already know.
But this isn’t a whine-fest. I’m just laying down a couple of facts about me and Crohn’s disease as the groundwork for my point.
It’s that week again. The one where all the ads on your Facebook feed, on TV, all the shopping sites are all about dads, and the best gift ideas for Father’s Day. And it would be so much fun to shop for and choose the perfect gift for my Dad. If he were still alive.
I had to count back. This is the thirteenth Father’s Day my Dad hasn’t been here. In 2004, his last Father’s Day on Earth, he was in a hospital bed in his living room at home, on hospice. Thank God he wasn’t in terrible pain and we could spend the day with him.
We knew that without a healing miracle, this would be the last Father’s Day he’d be with us. We couldn’t take him out to dinner or buy him something extravagant because he couldn’t do or use anything like that. What would he do with a tie or one more mug now?
Remember that soul rest I’ve been talking about? I’ve tapped into something important here. At least it’s become pretty important for me. I hope the idea has caught on for you as well, this Soul Rest. There’s something about it I’ve come to crave in just a short time.
I insisted on a collective soul rest and last month, and my family and I took off into the grand city of Chicago for a mini vacation. With teenagers and work schedules and school schedules and spring breaks that don’t match up now, it’s hard to get away as a family. But I was determined to make it happen.
