EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION; ENERGY RENEWAL

Yesterday evening, 10/14/2016, I was totally exhausted. 

"Why am I so tired?" I asked myself. Have you been in such a quandary as this?

In my case, maybe the television news of the Manzanita, Oregon tornado. I worried about friends and businesses I knew well from my twenty years of living there. Maybe I was exhausted by the low air pressure of the accompanying storm, which was felt inland in Bethany, Oregon, where I live now.

Photos of the wrecked buildings in Manzanita were sickening. Ruined building #1: roof lifted off. That's where Lucy and I used to buy ice cream cones for the grand-kids.

Ruined building #2: wreckage all over the entry way patio. That's where we went for stationery supplies and greeting cards.

Our former neighbor, Dave Dillon, wrote on Facebook that the tornado passed about 100 yards from his house. Other friends wrote that they were okay, but you should see the down trees and power poles. Fortunately, Manzanita residents are well organized for emergencies. No one was injured yesterday. But the total effect of news and low atmospheric pressure exhausted me.

Or, maybe the cause of my exhaustion was the effect of the 2016 political campaign. Ordinarily I enjoy political news. I like to get this candidate's proposals and compare them with that candidate's ideas.

But the 2016 presidential political campaign has exhausted me emotionally. The devilish antics, the bullish behavior, the obvious, non-stop lying, the charges of many women, cavalierly dismissed as false.

What a heap of verbal garbage. It exhausts me, like the low, low pressure of a coastal Pacific storm. The immediate challenge for me last evening was to write a post for today, October 15. I had no energy for it.

So, what to do? Here's what I did.

I retreated about 6:00 p.m. to a quiet corner in a quiet room, purposefully left off the television. I escaped from news of the Manzanita tornado and of the moral wreckage of the insane political storm. I played a computer game. Later I slept soundly through the night.

The ancients suffered through times of conflict, rage, battles, and persecution. Far worse times than ours. Those old sages must have wisdom for the exhausted to show the way to energy recovery.  Here are a couple of sage sayings I remember: 

• Confucius: “The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.”
• King David, Psalm 121: 1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  ² My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

This morning I ate a great breakfast, took a walk and wrote my post,. The only topic that interested me was "Emotional Exhaustion, Energy Renewal." 

Conclusion:

• The writer who suffers from mental block finds strength in the teachings of the ancients. 

• The citizen of a democracy finds inspiration in ancient wisdom.

Strength to you!

Please comment, please share. Have a great week.