Tonight I offer gratitude for the simple blessing of a Friday evening and the end of my work week. It is not lost on me how very fortunate I am to work a job that is organized such that I work Mondays through Fridays and have my weekends off. This is a somewhat coveted schedule I suppose. This has been a very long week. A while ago I found that I had conked out as sometimes happens, with the computer on my lap and my head flung back against the wall. When I woke, I thought it must be midnight and yet it was only 9:15. A very long week indeed.
It has been a week of riding the mechanical bull, being whipped this way and that, up and down, back and forth, and I am metaphorically bruised and sore and in reality exhausted. I am looking forward to a weekend wherein I have few responsibilities in which I can rest, recover my strength, and regain a sense of equanimity. That is what weekends are for and I hope to take advantage of it.
At the end of the week, as at the end of the day, I am simply grateful to have done the best I could in what was set before me today. I’m not sure I achieved excellence, which is generally what I strive toward, but simply offered as much of my energy and effort as I could for the good of the people I serve and those who work withe m. And at the end of the day, that is sufficient.
I have awakened myself in the midst of this writing, so I will close so that I can go to sleep on purpose rather than by accident. I look forward to rest and regeneration this weekend and toward approaching each day with a grateful heart. And so I offer a brief prayer that my sister shared with me that I have come to appreciate from the New Zealand prayer book:
God, it is night.
The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.
It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.
The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us, and all who have no peace.
The night heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys, new possibilities.
In your name we pray. Amen.
