safety of the sheets

some mornings.

you want to stay in the safety of your sheets, the covers creating a soft and squishy fort against the sorrow that seems to be waiting.


i have these mornings.

my dear friend marlana introduced me to this artist of words, ann voskamp, who named so gracefully and honestly what these moments feel like. maybe for many of us. i'm not alone right?

here are some of her words:

"Shadows of depression can ride up like a highway man in the night and and steal away all the silver linings.

I wake on a Sunday to his cantering away.

I lay in the bed a long time.

The legs, the spirit, too heavy to move. The sun’s high already, the sheets warm. I make a point of not looking at my watch or the bedside clock’s hands ticking, vainly trying to nudge me out.

Maybe I can bury myself deep under covers, a bunker, escape today and no one will notice? "

"When the problems before you seem to loom larger than the Power behind you, the purpose in living falls right out from underneath of you....Our greatest triumphs are always our most solitary ones and every great triumph begins with the decision to get out of bed.

I throw back the covers."

"To my dust and my smudges and my grime and my love-smeared mess. Why can’t I remember: the state of my space doesn’t reflect the state of my soul."

"I do the next thing. Clean off the table.

'Thank you, Lord, for the food that filled these dishes, that I am well and here and I can clean off this table.'

It sounds mechanical. And a tad lame. It is. I am doing the next thing.

Wipe the counters. And I say it aloud,

'Thank you, Lord, for water to wash off counters and that the dust bunnies around here haven’t yet grown into monsters and that the jam stuck sticky all over everything really does just wash off, and for this husband that treats me tender when I’m stuck.'

Can I feel the stirrings… the lifting?"

"God doesn’t ask me to be perfect; He asks me to praise.

I don’t have to have smudgeless windows and empty laundry baskets and gleamy toilet bowls! I don’t have to have a perfect life, all problems solved! I think I hear the Hallelujah chorus!

I simply need have a grateful heart to give Him glory.


Gratitude in all things is the only thing God asks."

well i find my way into the day, after the relentless nudging from my cats and the hope that what i will encounter will evoke more gratitude than sorrow.

to read her full post and more of her writings go to...

What do to do when you want to give up and stay in bed-holy experience