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Well, hello there. It's Morgan here. And

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for today's episode, I just want to share some

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pros that I wrote for

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the tired one.

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Perhaps keep going does

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not mean you have to keep running. Perhaps

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to simply keep breathing is

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a miraculous feat all on its

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own, especially right now.

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Perhaps it doesn't make you weak

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for needing a bit more rest

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or for needing a little bit more

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room to slow down.

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Maybe that's okay. Maybe

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there is room for you to remember

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those spaces that are sacred

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to you. Remember those

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spaces where you feel free

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to just be

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and not have to do anything. And

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may you return to those places

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as often as possible

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because you might even need

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more rest than you think you

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need. You might need more

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time to process than you've

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needed in the past. You

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might need more help and it might

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be hard to ask, but

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what you must know is that you

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are allowed to ask. And

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there is no shame in asking. No

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matter what the response is,

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you are allowed to

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keep discovering new

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ways to rest. rest. What

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you must know is that you

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are on a journey lined with grace,

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no matter what others do or say.

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What

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you must know is that to be

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here at all, to breathe here

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at all

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is a miraculous

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act

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all on its own. When

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I originally wrote this piece,

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I wrote it to a blue

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background

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and a white off-white

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flower and the words to

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me just kind of emerged

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from that image and

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the significance of that was

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to paint some kind of flower

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that

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had a calming

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setting around it because oftentimes

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when at least for me when I

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hear the word blooming or I think of

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flowers I think of of this bright,

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expressive flower

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that is bold and feels

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confident

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with the sun rays shining

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in on it. And while of course

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this is a beautiful image,

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what I wanted to show with

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this image and the words that

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go along with this image is

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this idea of

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really focusing on the flower

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blooming as something that

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happens relatively slowly.

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When the flower blooms, it's not

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running toward a bloom. It's

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not climbing a ladder toward

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a bloom,

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at least in the way that a human

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would climb a ladder. Even the way

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that climbing roses will

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climb upward isn't the way

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that a manufactured

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ladder would encourage

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a human to climb up a ladder step

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by step in a matter of

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seconds. It still takes a

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lot longer than a few seconds for

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those roses to rise. So

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what I wanted to illustrate was this

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other part of the flower,

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this other part of the blooming

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that is a lot less

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rushed because at times

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comparing the flower to this idea of

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keep going, keep going, that can easily

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become associated with speed and

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keep going as keep running.

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And that's not what that has. to

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mean the phrase keep going

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can literally just mean

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keep going in life

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keep breathing keep

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going into that inhale

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keep going into that exhale

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keep going into deep

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thought keep going into

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deeper ways of rest keep

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going

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in the pursuit of figuring out what

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works and what doesn't There's

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so many different ways that we

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can keep going. I

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think very similarly about the phrase,

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don't give up.

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Same thing. There are things

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in life that we're just like, actually,

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I'm really ready to give that

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up. So just people pleasing.

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That's one example of many. And

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there are times in life where

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don't give up for other reasons where

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it's just like, that's not really helpful.

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Maybe you're needing support

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and hearing don't give up. It's just

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kind of feels like someone's peering down

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to you while you're in a pit of some

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sort.

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And somebody saying that isn't really uplifting

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as it's not as uplifting as they think it

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is. So I am

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a huge

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advocate of taking these phrases and expanding

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them and finding different

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ways, especially through art to communicate

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these ideas. and it's through the colors,

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it's through the flowers that I get there.

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I don't just sit around and think of the stuff without

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images, like it has to have some kind of image.

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And I'm like, oh, this is a different way of

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seeing a flower.

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And there's something here thinking

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about blooming, thinking about how

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the perceptions of blooming and how

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I even attach things to

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that image of a flower blooming and

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what I think that means. So that's

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what I hope that that piece of prose

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that ended up going alongside

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the

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art piece. and I'll link it in the show notes

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if you'd like to see it.

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I just hope to provide a little

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bit of room to think about keep going so

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the next time you feel that pressure to

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Keep going and keep doing something

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I just hope that it can be

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an opportunity to just keep going

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as a human to keep Keep

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existing because that is a miraculous

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feat all on its

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own It takes a lot to be a human

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especially in our modern world

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the sheer amount of responsibilities

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a sheer amount of Information overload

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the things that we have to take in the things that we have to do

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and consider There's a lot

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to it.

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So I just hope that gives you a little bit of room

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to create some space and Before

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we go I would like to leave you with a question.

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What does keep going mean

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to you today?

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Thanks so much for listening. I'm Morgan Harper Nichols.