If you’re like me, you may at times experience a sense of weariness over the way life is at the moment. Of course there are the obvious – covid, global warming, rising living costs. Alongside this we find ourselves in a culture that continues to be relentless in what life demands of us. Do more, be more, earn more, have more, learn more, mediate more, grow more. The weight of expectation can be heavy to carry and we may feel as if we’re surviving life rather than really living it. 

The word enough seems pertinent to this drivenness towards more and the words of Chelan Harkin’s poem come as a salve to the constant push to achieve or be it. I often have to remind myself that that’s enough for today, that I don’t need to attain the unreachable goals I sometimes set myself, that I have enough, that I give enough, that I AM ENOUGH – simply being me, right here, right now. 

I need to remember that there are birds to listen to and watch out of the window, there are hot cups of tea to be enjoyed, naps to be taken and blankets to rest under. As Chelan says, we are doing enough on some days to simply breathe. 

Life is hard enough, this moment of history is challenging enough without us driving to be more, extend our enough-ness to breaking point and demand more from ourselves than is healthy to give. Some days we need to sit still, look around us and receive the enough-ness of the moment and ourselves within it. 

There is a quiet simplicity in welcoming enough-ness, there is a stillness that comes to soothe tired bones as we rest into being seen, held and celebrated here, just as we are without doing anything. And may-be if we can trust that we are enough and are doing enough rather than pushing for more, answering one more email, making one more call or staying at work one more  minute, we will find that life actually does go on, the provision we need does arrive and we encounter a stillness within that revels in the simplicity of enough. 

Here’s Chelan’s poem and below a recorded lectio-divina to help you reflect more deeply on the words. 

Bask in that

You are doing enough

by growing basil in your front yard

and delighting in it.

You are doing enough

by sitting still

and saying “thanks”

to whatever’s around you.

You are doing enough

with this breath

and that one too.

You are doing enough

by being the canvas

for all the intricate and unique designs

love draws within the heart

by sampling all the flavours 

of light.

Go ahead and take a break.

You’ve been invited to an orb

of mystery and joy!

Whoever says you can’t bask in that

was just trying to use you

to make him more money.

For more from  Chelan Harkin visit https://chelanharkin.com/