Weariness and Exhaustion

It's been a long two-plus years. I won't recount everything that has happened over that time, or everything that has changed, because we're pretty familiar with that story by now.

Today I want to write a little about COVID-weariness that seems to affect us all, some more than others.

I don't know if COVID-weariness is an actual, technical, authorized term, but it seems to fit what I've been both witnessing and experiencing. There are people who are simply tired of the whole thing and want to “get back to normal,” where normal means no masks and living/gathering as if COVID were over. There are also people who believe that COVID is not over and we need to be as hyper-vigiliant as we were in the first few months of the pandemic. And then there are people who are somewhere in the middle – continuing to wear masks in public and limiting or weighing the risks of gathering in groups, where catching COVID is not an “if” but a “when,” while doing all they can to limit that possibility.

No matter where you are on the spectrum, we are all tired. We are all weary. I think part of this weariness comes from having to continually adapt, pivot, and change. Granted, adaptation and change are part of life. As someone once said, “The only difference between a rut and a grave is how deep it is and how long you're in it.”

But to have to make the amount of changes we've been making, for as often as we've been making them, is wearisome.

This is one reason why I am grateful to be getting back into a routine of making house calls. Some of these visits are scheduled, while others are more along the lines of “knock and see who's home.” Some of them involve Communion, while others are just time spent in conversation.

This past Monday I spent most of the day in the car as I drove to Mercersburg, over to Chambersburg, and then through Waynesboro visiting some of our parishioners hither and yon. It was a long day. It was hot. I was pretty much exhausted by the time I returned to Hagerstown and closed out the day with Evening Prayer.

Exhausted, though, is not wearied. They can be synonymous, but in this context there is a difference. My exhaustion came from a full day's work of traveling to be with parishioners, of spending time with them and sharing conversation, and of being on the road. In that exhaustion I found energy.

Weariness, however, comes from constantly being run down, fatigued, frazzled, and worn out by things which seem beyond our control. One of the Collects in Compline reads, “Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness.”

In this particular phase of COVID, what wearies you? More importantly, what good thing can you do that gives you energy even while exhausting you? And then, as a way to combat weariness, maybe we could find energy in doing that thing that exhausts every now and then.

Blessings,

Todd+