Relief

It’s not overwhelming joy or unrestrained happiness
 
Awhile ago, there was this poem "Relief" on the Writers Almanac. It made me stop and consider how truly underappreciated the sense of relief can be. The finishing up of a big project, a hard conversation had, the lost pet returning home, the lump that is nothing serious, getting the house cleaned, coming out ahead in our fiscal year at church. It's not overwhelming joy, or unrestrained happiness; it's somehow bigger and yet softer, all at the same time. Something that makes you appreciate more the wonderfulness of our ordinary lives. 
 
Relief
 
We know it is close
to something lofty.
Simply getting over being sick
or finding lost property
has in it the leap,
the purge, the quick humility
of witnessing a birth—
how love seeps up
and retakes the earth.
There is a dreamy
wading feeling to your walk
inside the current
of restored riches,
clocks set back,
disasters averted.
 
Kay Ryan
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation