Where I Learned to Rest

There is a place where the world falls away; where worries die with cell phone reception, and the business cannot touch you.

There is a place where silence drowns out the noise and peace suffocates the lies society tells us about who we are.

There is a place where all you have been and all you want to be intersects.

There is a place where it is safe to break because the trees bend closer to listen and the water falls so your tears don't feel alone; where the river sings to soften the ache of newly recognized longing.

And there is a drifting guitar melody and ice cream waiting for you when you can stand again.

Here is where we sing together when one forgets the words. Here is where our prayers and the psalms collide and become one. Here is where we hold each other up.

Here is where the tea is as endless as the conversation and tears are welcomed just as tenderly as laughter.

© 2014 Topher Ayrhar

And now is when I learn to cry, to stop hiding from the things I feel, from the ones who ask. Now is when I stop trying to be too strong, stop pretending when I doubt.

There is a place called now where we start to live fully here, in this moment. And we return home to the people who wait for what we have just tasted.

So I carry it home with me, this little taste of rest, not only for myself but to share with those who need it most:

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]" Matthew 11:28 AMP

© 2014 Topher Ayrhar

You can see a few more of my pictures from the retreat here.