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Burnout

March 5, 2015 By Erin Beasley

Lit MatchBurnout. Noun. The sensation that a tire is about to blow, the house is about to catch on fire, someone you love, maybe yourself, is about to crash and burn.

***

A moth bumping against lamplight.

Oh, little moth, don’t you understand?

Bzzzzzzz…

Singed wings. Shrapnel. Wholly. Holy?

Thump of body against floor. The flail—the flay, filleted?—and still, still.

Death and burial.

No resurrection.

***

Quoting Bilbo. Too much bread; too little butter.

Stretched thin, stretched thin, stretched thin.

***

This is the wound that does not heal. Correction. This is a wound not easily healed.

***

Forget the bandages. Lose the concealer. Think of Rumi. Dance in your blood. Dance in your brokenness. Dance, when you’re finally free.

***

Sit. Be still. Admit the exhaustion. Watch the moth falter. Admit the fears. Wholly, wholly, holy.

Let the healing begin. Watch the moth stir to life, broken wing by broken wing.

Image: Jeff Turner (Creative Commons)

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Filed Under: Christianity, Poetry, Writing Life Tagged With: Bilbo Baggins, burnout, moth, Rumi, writing life

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  1. I Won't Quit - Write Right says:
    April 21, 2015 at 6:31 am

    […] late, though, it’s been a frequent guest. I love writing and words and language, but I’m tired. Burned out. What I feel is not Pressfield’s or Goldberg’s “resistance.” This is something deeper, […]

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